Helicopter crash in Iran: President Raisi and foreign minister dead

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranians President Ebrahim RaisiThe country’s foreign minister and several other officials were found dead on Monday, hours after their helicopter crashed in a foggy mountainous region in the country’s northwest, state media reported.

The crash comes as the Middle East continues to be unsettled by the war between Israel and Hamas, which saw the 63-year-old Raisi launch an unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei just last month started.

During Raisi’s tenure, Iran enriched uranium closer to weapons-grade levels than ever before, further escalating tensions with the West as Tehran also supplied bomb-carrying drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine and to armed militia groups across the region.

Meanwhile, Iran has faced years of mass protests against its Shiite theocracy over its ailing economy and women’s rights – making this moment all the more sensitive for Tehran and the country’s future. Hours later, Khamenei announced that Iran’s first vice president, Mohammad Mokhber, would serve as the country’s acting president until the elections.

State television gave no immediate reason for this Crash in the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan.

An Iranian was also among the dead Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian60. The helicopter also carried the governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, other officials and bodyguards, state news agency IRNA reported.

Early Monday morning, Turkish authorities released drone footage that appeared to show a fire in the wilderness that was “presumably 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 early Monday showed what the agency described as the crash site in a steep valley in a green mountain range. Soldiers speaking in the local Azerbaijani language said: “There it is, we found it.”

After Iran confirmed there were no survivors of the crash, condolences poured in from neighbors and allies. Pakistan announced a day of mourning and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a post on X that his country “stands with Iran in this time of mourning.” The leaders of Egypt and Jordan also expressed their condolences, as did Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said he and his government were “deeply shocked” – Raisi was returning on Sunday after traveling to Iran’s border with Azerbaijan to inaugurate a dam with Aliyev when the crash happened.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his condolences. Russian President Vladimir Putin called Raisi “a true friend of Russia” in a statement released by the Kremlin.

Khamenei, who himself called on the public to pray on Sunday evening, emphasized that the Iranian government’s business would definitely continue.

According to the Iranian constitution, if the president dies, Iran’s first deputy president would take office with Khamenei’s approval, and new presidential elections would be called within 50 days. Khamenei’s condolence message on Monday over Raisi’s death announced five days of public mourning and acknowledged that Mokhber had assumed the role of acting president.

State media reported that Mokhber had already received calls from officials and foreign governments in Raisi’s absence.

An emergency meeting of Iran’s Cabinet was held as state media announced the news on Monday morning. The Cabinet then issued a statement promising to follow Raisi’s path and that “with the help of God and the people, there will be no problem in the administration of the country.”

A Hardliner who formerly headed the country’s judiciaryRaisi was seen as a protégé of Khamenei and some analysts had suggested he could replace the 85-year-old leader after Khamenei’s death or resignation.

After Raisi’s death, Mojtaba Khameini, the Supreme Leader’s 55-year-old son, is the only other person considered so far. But some have expressed concern that the position has been given to a family member for only the third time since 1979, particularly after the Islamic Revolution overthrew the Shah’s hereditary Pahlavi monarchy.

Raisi won the 2021 presidential election in Iran, A vote that recorded the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic. Raisi 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 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 also continued to arm proxy groups in the Middle East, such as the Houthi rebels in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, mass protests have been raging in the country for years. The most recent case involved the death of in 2022 Mahsa Amini, a woman who had previously been arrested for allegedly not wearing a hijab or headscarf in the interests of the authorities. Months of security crackdowns following the demonstrations left more than 500 people dead and over 22,000 arrested.

In March, a United Nations investigative panel found that Iran was responsible for the “physical violence” that led to Amini’s death.

Raisi is the second Iranian president to die in office. In 1981, President Mohammad Ali Rajai was killed in a bomb blast in the chaotic days following the country’s Islamic Revolution.

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Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.