Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, along with the country’s foreign minister and several other officials, were found dead hours after their helicopter crashed in a mountainous region of north-west Iran, state media reported.
The crash occurs amid ongoing instability in the Middle East due to the Israel-Hamas war. Just last month, 63-year-old Raisi, under Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, initiated an unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel. Khamenei has announced that Iran’s first vice president, Mohammad Mokhber, will serve as acting president until elections are held.
During Raisi’s presidency, Iran enriched uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels, further escalating tensions with the West. Tehran also supplied bomb-carrying drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine and armed militia groups across the region. Iran has faced years of mass protests against its Shia theocracy over its ailing economy and women’s rights, adding to the sensitivity of the current moment for Tehran and the future of the country.
State TV provided no immediate cause for the crash, which occurred in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province amid foggy conditions. Among the dead was Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, 60. The helicopter also carried the governor of East Azerbaijan province and other officials, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. IRNA stated that the crash killed eight people in total, including three crew members on the Bell helicopter, which Iran purchased in the early 2000s.
Aircraft in Iran suffer from a shortage of parts, often flying without safety checks due to Western sanctions. As a result, former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif blamed the United States for the crash in an interview on Monday. Zarif stated, “One of the main culprits of yesterday’s tragedy is the United States, which... embargoed the sale of aircraft and aviation parts to Iran and does not allow the people of Iran to enjoy good aviation facilities. These will be recorded in the list of US crimes against the Iranian people.” The US has yet to comment publicly on Raisi’s death.
Early Monday morning, Turkish authorities released drone footage showing what appeared to be a fire in the wilderness, suspected to be the helicopter wreckage. The coordinates in the footage placed the fire about 12 miles south of the Azerbaijan-Iranian border on a steep mountain. Footage released by IRNA early Monday depicted the crash site across a steep valley in a green mountain range, with soldiers speaking in the local Azeri language saying, “There it is, we found it.”
Condolences poured in from neighboring countries and allies after Iran confirmed there were no survivors from the crash. Pakistan announced a day of mourning, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X that his country “stands with Iran in this time of sorrow.” Leaders of Egypt and Jordan, as well as Syrian President Bashar Assad, also offered condolences. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev expressed his shock, stating that Raisi had been returning from a trip to inaugurate a dam with him at Iran’s border with Azerbaijan when the crash occurred.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan conveyed his condolences, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a statement released by the Kremlin, described Raisi “as a true friend of Russia.”
Khamenei, who had urged the public to pray Sunday night, emphasized that Iran’s government business would continue. Under the Iranian constitution, the first vice president takes over if the president dies, with Khamenei’s approval, and a new presidential election must be called within 50 days. Khamenei’s condolence message on Monday over Raisi’s death declared five days of public mourning and acknowledged that Mokhber had assumed the role of acting president.
Mokhber had already begun receiving calls from officials and foreign governments in Raisi’s absence, state media reported. An emergency cabinet meeting was held as state media made the announcement on Monday morning. The cabinet issued a statement afterward pledging to follow Raisi’s path, stating that “with the help of God and the people, there will be no problem with management of the country.”
A hard-liner who formerly led the country’s judiciary, Raisi was seen as a protégé of Khamenei, with some analysts suggesting he could replace the 85-year-old leader after Khamenei’s death or resignation. Following Raisi’s death, the only other person suggested has been Mojtaba Khamenei, the 55-year-old son of the supreme leader. However, some have raised concerns about the position being taken by a family member for the third time since 1979, particularly after the Islamic Revolution overthrew the hereditary Pahlavi monarchy.
Raisi won Iran’s 2021 presidential election, a vote that saw the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history. He was sanctioned by the US partly due to his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 at the end of the bloody Iran-Iraq war.
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