Latest helicopter incident in Iran: Rescuers search for President Ebrahim Raisi after the crash | World News

Ebrahim Raisi was elected President of Iran in 2021.

The 63-year-old has since ordered a tightening of morality laws, overseen a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests and vigorously pushed forward nuclear negotiations with world powers.

He is sanctioned by the US in part because of his role in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 at the end of the bloody Iran-Iraq War.

Under Mr. Raisi, Iran is now enriching uranium to near weapons levels and obstructing international inspections.

Iran has armed Russia in its war against Ukraine and launched a massive drone and missile attack on Israel as part of its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

It has continued to arm proxy groups in the Middle East, such as the Houthi rebels in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In Iran’s dual political system, divided between the clerical establishment and the government, the supreme leader, not the president, has the final say on all major policy decisions.

But many see Raisi as a strong contender to succeed his 85-year-old mentor, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has strongly supported Raisi’s main policies.

Our Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall says the president is an “important figure in Iranian political and religious society” but “he is by no means universally popular.”

Demonstrators criticized his and the government’s “tough stance,” Bunkall said, even though he is considered one of the two leading candidates to potentially take over as supreme leader.

Bunkall said Mr. Raisi was “significantly involved” in many Iranian activities in the region.