Unlike the managed transition that followed the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (who led the country from the 1979 revolution for ten years, after which Khamenei took over) things are different. This succession will take place amid acute domestic unrest, economic crisis and unprecedented external military pressure. What follows now will have far-reaching consequences. In the end it was an act of war rather than revolution or old age that ended Khamenei’s rule.