Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s foreign minister and others were found dead Monday hours after their helicopter crashed in a foggy, mountainous region of the country’s northwest, state media reported. Raisi was 63.
The crash comes as the Middle East remains unsettled by the Israel-Hamas war, during which Raisi under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched an unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel just last month. Under Raisi, Iran enriched uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels, further escalating tensions with the West as Tehran also supplied bomb-carrying drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine and 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 the moment that much more sensitive for Tehran and the future of the country.
State TV gave no immediate cause for the crash that occurred in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province.
Among the dead was Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, 60. The helicopter also carried the governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, other officials and bodyguards, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
Early Monday morning, Turkish authorities released what they described as drone footage showing what appeared to be a fire in the wilderness that they “suspected to be wreckage of helicopter.” The coordinates listed in the footage put the fire some 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of the Azerbaijan-Iranian border on the side of a steep mountain.
Footage released by the IRNA early Monday showed what the agency described as the crash site, across a steep valley in a green mountain range. Soldiers speaking in the local Azeri language said: “There it is, we found it.”
Khamenei himself had urged the public to pray Sunday night.
“We hope that God the Almighty returns the dear president and his colleagues in full health to the arms of the nation,” Khamenei said, drawing an “amen” from the worshipers he was addressing.
However, the supreme leader also stressed the business of Iran’s government would continue no matter what. Under the Iranian constitution, Iran’s vice first president takes over if the president dies, with Khamenei’s assent, and a new presidential election would be called within 50 days.
First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber already had begun receiving calls from officials and foreign governments in Raisi’s absence, state media reported. An emergency meeting of Iran’s Cabinet was held as state media made the announcement Monday morning. The Cabinet issued a statement afterward pledging it would follow Raisi’s path and that “with the help of God and the people, there will be no problem with management of the country.”
Raisi a hard-liner who formerly led the country’s judiciary, was viewed as a protégé of Khamenei and some analysts had suggested he could replace the 85-year-old leader after Khamenei’s death or resignation.
With Raisi’s death, the only other person so far suggested has been Mojtaba Khameini, the 55-year-old son to the supreme leader. However, some have raised concerns over the position being taken only for the third time since 1979 to a family member, particularly after the Islamic Revolution overthrew the hereditary Pahlavi monarchy of the shah.
Raisi won Iran’s 2021 presidential election, a vote that saw the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history. Raisi is sanctioned by the U.S. in part over his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 at the end of the bloody Iran-Iraq war.
Under Raisi, Iran now enriches uranium at nearly weapons-grade levels and hampers international inspections. Iran has armed Russia in its war on Ukraine, as well as launched a massive drone-and-missile attack on Israel amid its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It also has continued arming proxy groups in the Mideast, like Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, mass protests in the country have raged for years. The most recent involved the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who had been earlier detained over allegedly not wearing a hijab, or headscarf, to the liking of authorities. The monthslong security crackdown that followed the demonstrations killed more than 500 people and saw over 22,000 detained.
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, a bomb blast killed President Mohammad Ali Rajai in the chaotic days after the revolution. How was Ebrahim Raisi as a president?
Ebrahim Raisi was considered a worthy successor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. During his tenure as president from 2021 to 2024, he became an important figure in world politics. How was Ebrahim Raisi as president?
Putin calls interim president, stresses strong ties with Iran
Russian President Vladimir Putin phoned Iran's new interim president on Monday as Moscow made clear its desire to preserve and build on its deepening relationship with Tehran despite the sudden death of President Ebrahim Raisi, reports Reuters.
The Kremlin said Putin expressed his condolences to interim president Mohammad Mokhber and to the whole Iranian people over Raisi's death in a helicopter crash, describing Raisi as a "reliable partner who made an invaluable personal contribution" to bilateral relations.
"Both sides emphasised their mutual desire to further consistently strengthen comprehensive Russian-Iranian interaction for the benefit of the peoples of the two countries," the Kremlin said in its readout of the Putin-Mokhber call.
Iran's Supreme Leader approves Mokhber as interim president, declares 5 days mourning
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Monday that First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber is in charge of the executive branch and has a maximum period of 50 days to hold elections following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported.
Ali Bagheri Kani appointed as Iran's acting foreign minister after Amirabdollahian's death
Iran's government cabinet appointed on Monday Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani as acting foreign minister following the death of Hossein Amirabdollahian in a helicopter crash.
Three branches of Iranian government hold 'extraordinary meeting'
Iran's three branches of government held an extraordinary meeting on Monday with First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber representing the executive branch , following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, Reuters reported quoting Iran's Judiciary news agency Mizan.
Iran's nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri named acting foreign minister
Iran's veteran nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri, a harsh critic of the West, was Monday named acting foreign minister to replace the top diplomat killed in a helicopter crash along with the president.
Bagheri, 56, had served as deputy to the foreign minister of the Islamic republic, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who perished along with the Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi and seven others in the accident.
Bagheri is considered close to Iran's ultraconservatives and a member of the inner circle of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is the father-in-law of Bagheri's brother.
The negotiator with the salt-and-pepper beard came to be known to his interlocutors for a soft-spoken composure that often stood in sharp contrast to his uncompromising stance.
"Every time foreigners intervene, under any pretext... their presence interferes with the security and stability of the region," Bagheri once said.
The new acting foreign minister has long experience with Iran's nuclear dossier -- the flashpoint issue that has pitted Tehran against major powers and arch foe Israel, who suspect it is seeking the atomic bomb.
Iran struck a landmark nuclear deal in 2015 in Vienna under which it agreed to curb the programme in return for sanctions relief, but former US president Donald Trump withdrew from it three years later.
After Iran had agreed the Vienna deal under its moderate president Hassan Rouhani, Bagheri emerged as one of its main critics, accusing the administration of bowing to the West.
He charged that the deal violated most of Khamenei's "red lines" by imposing curbs and strict surveillance on the nuclear programme, which Iran says is strictly for civilian purposes.
After the US withdrawal and reimposition of sanctions in 2018, Bagheri accused Rouhani of having "given the West the impression that Iran is very weak".
He later also used tough language to defend Iran's efforts to revive the deal.
Last year he charged that the critics of those efforts "in reality want to deprive the Islamic republic of a key and important tool to guarantee national interests".
Born in 1967 in the village of Kan in northwestern Tehran, Bagheri grew up in a family deeply involved in politics in the Islamic republic.
His father, a renowned Shiite cleric, was a member of the Assembly of Experts tasked with selecting the supreme leader. Bagheri's uncle, Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, later led the same body.
Bagheri worked in the foreign ministry in the 1990s and grew close to conservative figure Saeed Jalili.
When Jalili was appointed secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and became Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Bagheri served as his number two.
After Bagheri concluded his own mission at the Council, he joined the judiciary when it was headed by Raisi. He served as secretary of the human rights council and then assistant for international affairs.
Weeks after Raisi took office in 2021, Bagheri was appointed deputy foreign minister for political affairs and chief nuclear negotiator.
But those talks have since come to a standstill over seemingly insurmountable differences, particularly with Washington.
