Iran’s Ebrahim Raisi died in helicopter crash: what happened?

BEIRUT – The helicopter crash that killed Iran’s president and foreign minister has sent shock waves across the region.

Iranian state media said Monday that President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and others were found dead at the site after an hours-long search in a foggy mountainous region in the country’s northwest.

Here’s what we know so far.

Read more: The list of potential suspects in the mysterious death of Iranian President Raisi

Who was on board the helicopter and where were they going?

According to state news agency IRNA, the helicopter was carrying Raisi, Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province and other officials.

Raisi was returning on Sunday after traveling to Iran’s border with Azerbaijan to inaugurate a dam with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev when the crash occurred in Dizmar forest in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province.

According to IRNA, the crash killed a total of eight people, including three crew members aboard the Bell helicopter that Iran purchased in the early 2000s. Planes in Iran face a shortage of spare parts and often fly without security checks due to Western sanctions. For this reason, former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tried to blame the US for the crash.

The US has not yet publicly commented on Raisi’s death.

How did the search go?

Iranian officials said the mountainous, forested terrain and heavy fog had hampered search and rescue operations that began on Sunday.

Iranian Red Crescent Society President Pir-Hossein Koulivand said 40 search parties were at the scene despite “challenging weather conditions.” Due to the bad weather, Koulivand said it was “impossible to conduct aerial searches with drones,” according to IRNA.

How was the crash site found?

Early Monday, Turkish authorities released what they called drone footage that appeared to show a fire in the wilderness that they “suspected to be the wreckage of a helicopter.” According to coordinates listed in the footage, the fire was located on a steep mountainside about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of the Azerbaijan-Iranian border.

Footage released by IRNA showed the crash site described by the agency in a steep valley in a green mountain range. Soldiers, speaking in the local Azerbaijani language, said: “There it is, we found it.” Soon after, a scrolling text on state television said: “There is no sign of life from the people on board.”

What impact will Raisi’s death have on Iran?

Raisi was considered a protégé of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a potential successor to his position within the country’s Shiite theocracy.

According to the Iranian constitution, if a president dies, the country’s first vice president – in this case Mohammad Mokhber – would become president. Khamenei has publicly assured Iranians that there will be “no disruption to the country’s operations” as a result of the crash.

What was the international reaction?

After news of the search broke, countries including Russia, Iraq and Qatar officially expressed concern about Raisi’s fate and offered to help in the search.

Azerbaijani President Aliyev offered all necessary support. Relations between the two countries have been cool due to Azerbaijan’s diplomatic ties with Israel, Iran’s regional arch-enemy.

Saudi Arabia, traditionally a rival of Iran although the two countries have recently reached rapprochement, said it stands by “Iran in these difficult circumstances.”

There was no immediate official response from Israel. Last month, Tehran fired hundreds of missiles and drones into Israel following an Israeli attack on an Iranian consulate building in Damascus that killed two Iranian generals. They were mostly shot down and tensions appear to have subsided since then.