Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi dead in helicopter crash

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has died in a helicopter crash, shocking the nation and fuelling uncertainty at a time of increased tensions in the Middle East.

“The Iranian nation has lost a sincere, devoted and valuable servant,” Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement on Monday as he declared five days of national mourning.

He also named first vice-president Mohammad Mokhber as interim leader of the government, in accordance with Iran’s constitution.

The emergency election of a new president has been scheduled for June 28, state media said.

The state news agency IRNA had earlier quoted “local sources” at the crash site in north-western Iran, confirming “the martyrdom of the president and his companions”. Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian also died in the crash.

Politicians and officials turned to social media to cite a Quranic verse used for the deceased. Mohsen Mansouri, a vice-president for executive affairs, wrote on X in Arabic: “We belong to God and to Him we return.”

The death of Raisi, a hardline conservative viewed as a possible successor to 85-year-old Khamenei, comes at a difficult time for Iran.

The economy is struggling in the face of US sanctions, while the country is also part of heightened tensions in the Middle East. A years-long shadow war between Iran and Israel has burst into the open following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

Iran launched its first direct assault on Israel from its own soil last month in retaliation for an Israeli strike on the Iranian consular building in Damascus, which killed several of its commanders.

A regime insider in Tehran was confident that the fallout from Raisi’s death could be contained. “Iran’s macro policies will continue in full force and we’ll see no strategic shift as a result,” the person said.

“The president was in charge of executive affairs and the economy rather than making strategic decisions. His responsibilities will be handled by the government until the next president is elected.”

The government announced that Ali Bagheri Kani, a deputy to Amirabdollahian, would take charge of foreign affairs during the interim period. Kani was Iran’s nuclear negotiator in the Raisi administration and held two rounds of indirect talks with the US in Oman this year as part of efforts to ease regional tensions following the Israel-Hamas war.

The helicopter carrying the president came down on Sunday in a remote and mountainous region in Arasbaran Forest, near the border with Azerbaijan, according to Tasnim News Agency, which is linked to the elite Revolutionary Guards.

Rescue teams battled for hours to reach the crash site, with fog and snow hindering efforts.

The president and his entourage were returning from a visit to the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan, where they took part in the inauguration of a dam along with the president of neighbouring Azerbaijan.

Raisi, 63, was elected in 2021 in a vote with a record-low turnout in the country’s history. He had been expected to seek re-election in polls scheduled for next year.

The president showed unconditional loyalty to the ayatollah and maintained close relations with the Revolutionary Guards. After decades of tense relations between Iran’s presidents and the supreme leader over the extent of their powers, Raisi was the first to end these tensions.

Raisi was travelling in a helicopter purchased by the ousted Pahlavi dynasty in the 1970s. The Islamic Republic has not been able to upgrade its civilian and military aviation industry due to US sanctions.

Iran’s former foreign minister Javad Zarif blamed the US for Raisi’s death, saying it “has sanctioned the sale of aeroplane and aviation parts to Iran and does not allow the Iranian people to enjoy aviation rights”. He added: “These will be recorded in the list of America’s crimes against the Iranian people.”

Chuck Schumer, US Senate majority leader, said he had been told by US intelligence agencies that there was no evidence of foul play, NBC reported.