Analysts say Iran's rulers are at a loss over how to crack down on anti-government protests.
According to Arab News, protests against the death of 22-year-old Mehsa Amini in police custody are taking place at a time when there are new rumors about the ill health of 83-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini.
This situation has also created a threat to Iran's religious establishment.
Although the experts of the 86-member assembly will choose the new leader, the effort to gain power has already begun.
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The two candidates who are being considered favorites to replace Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei are his son Mujtaba and President Ibrahim Raisi.
Karim Sajjadpour, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that the two leaders do not have public support.
But what keeps the Islamic Republic in power is not popular support, but suppression by force. Both these leaders have deep experience of suppression.
The protests have spread to 80 cities across the country. Iran's government has accused a coalition of "anarchists, terrorists and foreign dissidents" of organizing the protests. It is a narrative that few Iranians believe.
Fearing public outrage, some senior clerics and politicians have called for restraint and to avoid bloodshed.
However, despite the death of 75 protesters in the crackdown, the hard-line leaders did not stop from taking strict measures.
A former Iranian official said, "Part of the establishment fears that the use of more dangerous force this time will be a threat to the Islamic Republic."
