Ebrahim Raisi, the President of Iran and a staunch cleric aligned with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was confirmed dead following a helicopter crash.
The 63-year-old, who previously headed the judiciary, assumed the presidency after winning an election marked by the disqualification of many significant moderate and reformist contenders, leading to low voter turnout.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and several others are also reported to have perished in the crash.
State media reported that the helicopter made a “hard landing” as President Raisi was en route to Tabriz from the Azerbaijani border.
Prior to the confirmation of their deaths, vigils were held in Tehran, where people were seen kneeling in prayer. The search operation for the crash was complicated by adverse weather conditions.
Several countries, including Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Turkey—which sent a mountain rescue team—offered assistance with the rescue efforts.
Iran’s constitution provides a clear protocol for instances when a president cannot fulfill his duties due to death, illness, or impeachment.
It mandates that the vice president, currently Mohammad Mokhber, temporarily manage the country’s affairs and, along with the heads of parliament and the judiciary, oversee the election of a new president within 50 days, pending approval from the supreme leader.
With the death of President Raisi confirmed by state media, Iran is set to conduct such an election, though public interest is expected to remain low, similar to the previous election.
Raisi, born in 1960 in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city and the site of its most sacred Shia Muslim shrine, joined the seminary in Qom at 15.
He actively protested against the Western-supported Shah, who was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
After the revolution, Raisi entered the judiciary, working as a prosecutor in various cities under the mentorship of Ayatollah Khamenei, who was elected president of Iran in 1981.
