Iran President is dead, State media confirms
By K24 Editorial, May 20, 2024Iran President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister were killed in a helicopter crash in mountainous terrain and icy weather, an Iranian official said on Monday, after search teams located the wreckage in East Azerbaijan province.
“President Raisi, the foreign minister and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash,” the senior Iranian official told Reuters, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Iran’s Mehr news agency confirmed the deaths, reporting that “all passengers of the helicopter carrying the Iranian president and foreign minister were martyred”.
An Iranian official earlier told Reuters the helicopter carrying Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was completely burned in the crash on Sunday.
State TV reported that images from the site showed the aircraft slammed into a mountain peak, although there was no official word on the cause of the crash.
State news agency IRNA said Raisi was flying in a U.S.-made Bell 212 helicopter.
Hardline leader
Raisi, 63, was elected president in 2021, and since taking office has ordered a tightening of morality laws, overseen a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests and pushed hard in nuclear talks with world powers.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds ultimate power with a final say on foreign policy and Iran’s nuclear programme, had earlier sought to reassure Iranians, saying there would be no disruption to state affairs.
What next?
It tasks the vice-president – in this case, Mohammad Mokhber – to run the affairs of the country and jointly with the heads of parliament and the judiciary oversee an election for a new president within a maximum of 50 days.
This would only happen with the confirmation of the supreme leader, who has the final say in all matters of state in Iran.
With state media confirming that President Ebrahim Raisi has died, the regime in Iran will move to hold such an election – one that is unlikely to gather any more interest among the public than the last one did.
Last time around, all serious challengers to Raisi were barred from running, clearing the path for him to enter office with the lowest number of voters (around 30% of eligible voters), while the majority boycotted what they saw as a fixed election.