Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s foreign minister and other officials were declared dead in a helicopter crash, Iranian state media said on Monday.
Following the announcement of Raisi’s death, the Iranian government held an emergency meeting and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei then appointed First Vice President Mohammad Mokhbar as acting president. Khamenei also announced that the country would observe five days of mourning.
The crash deprived Iran of two of its most important diplomatic figures as regional tensions remain high due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Iranian state-run media announced Raisi’s death in a post on Monday, along with the deaths of Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province and other government officials who were aboard the helicopter.
No immediate cause of the crash was given, but state media released photos online, suggesting it was the wreckage of the helicopter the group was traveling in. The helicopter crashed in foggy conditions in a mountainous area in northern Iran as they were returning from an event. On Iran’s border with Azerbaijan.
There was immediate international reaction from Iran’s neighbors. The government of Pakistan announced that it would observe a day of mourning over the news. In Russia, President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to Khamenei, Russian state media reported.
The rescue team searched extensively for the helicopter.
Earlier, IRNA reported that the president of the Iranian Red Crescent Society confirmed that rescue and search teams had identified Raisi’s helicopter.
On Sunday, Iran’s interior minister, Ahmad Vahidi, said the presidential helicopter had made a “hard landing” and that search and rescue operations were ongoing. According to IRNA,
iRNA informed of Two passengers on board the plane contacted rescue workers. Twenty rescue teams, including drones and dogs, were dispatched to the scene, and the Iranian military also deployed troops to assist in the rescue effort, IRNA. couple,
Fars News Agency posted what it said video footage Rescue teams were sent to the area. Earlier in the day, the Iranian government’s posted an image Raisi sits next to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev at the inauguration of a dam on the border between the two countries.
Raisi was elected in 2021 and is relatively hardline
Raisi, a former cleric and judge, was elected president in 2021.
When he came into office, Raisi said that Iran would continue to honor its nuclear deal with the US, despite then-President Donald Trump’s decision to exit the deal in 2018.
Nevertheless, Raisi is seen as more hardline than his predecessor, former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
Last month, Raisi celebrated Iran’s attack on Israel after an airstrike in Damascus that killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iran blamed Israel for the bombing, but Israel never claimed responsibility. Israel said it and its allies intercepted 99% of the missiles and drones fired by Iran during the retaliatory strike.
Iran’s president is the head of its government, but the country is ruled by its supreme leader, Khamenei.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Iran’s Supreme Leader sets national policies, oversees their implementation, and also controls the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and police forces.
Iran’s constitution dictates that if the president dies while in office, the first vice president takes over with the approval of the country’s supreme leader, Reuters reports. Then new elections should be held within 50 days.
