Ebrahim Raisi was obsessive about the safety of the individuals

As the helicopter rose by means of the misting clouds, Ebrahim Raisi stared sombrely out of the window. The view, of the rugged mountains of north-west Iran, ought to have been magnificent. As we speak, there was not a lot to see. And in any case he was not given to smiling. It didn’t swimsuit the black turban he wore, a token of his descent from the Prophet, or his regular black clerical robes, or his skinny glasses. He most popular to seem as what he was, an unbending professional on sharia regulation, for whom chopping off the fingers of thieves was “certainly one of our best honours”.

But he had accomplished an uncommon quantity of smiling that day, as he inaugurated, with President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, the enormous Qiz Qalasi dam on the Aras river. It marked a rapprochement between their nations. That they had had their ups and downs, however at present he had known as Mr Aliyev a brother and a buddy. Their co-operation, he mentioned, would make their enemies despair.