Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi has been killed in a helicopter crash in the country’s mountains.
Rescuers on Monday found the helicopter carrying the president and other officials, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who also died, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency. The plane crashed on Sunday near the village of Tawer in northwestern Iran.
Lacey was traveling in three helicopters returning from an event on the Azerbaijani border when his plane crashed, killing all nine people on board. Heavy fog prevailed in the area, making it difficult for rescue workers. Two other helicopters landed safely.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Schumer said that intelligence agencies had informed him that there was no evidence of foul play in the helicopter crash, NBC reported.
The president’s death comes amid instability in the Middle East as the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas intensifies. The conflict has brought Iran and Israel, which back Islamist militant groups, closer to a full-scale conflict and has led other groups backed by Tehran, including Yemen’s Houthis and Iraqi Shia militias, to attack shipping in the Red Sea and around the United States.
In April this year, Iran launched an unprecedented number of missiles and drones at its arch-enemy Israel, but almost all were intercepted and the damage was minimal. In response, the Jewish state launched a limited attack on an Iranian air base.
While tensions between the two countries have since eased, tensions remain high as the Israeli military enters its eighth month in a war to destroy Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
Raisi, an ultraconservative cleric in his 60s who won the 2021 presidential election, is seen as the favorite to succeed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is in his 80s.
His successor is likely to be First Vice President Mohammad Mohber, who has recently traveled extensively on behalf of Iran and, like many senior Iranian officials, is subject to U.S. sanctions. Under the constitution, elections may be held within 50 days.
Eurasia analyst Gregory Blue said in a report that Raisi’s death would not “seriously disrupt Iran’s internal stability as the security forces, military and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps remain under the control of the supreme leader ”. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is a powerful military and commercial force that controls many of Iran’s relationships with proxy militias.
In March 2023, Raisi and Amirabdoullahian oversaw the restoration of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia through a China-brokered deal. also reached an impasse.
Iranian television earlier broadcast live footage of dozens of ambulances operating amid heavy rain and fog. The Turkish Defense Ministry said it had dispatched a drone at Iran’s request to help locate and monitor the crash site. The European Union has helped by launching a rapid response mapping service.
Earlier on Sunday, Lacey met with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Ilham Aliyev to inaugurate a dam jointly developed on the border between the two countries.
The Iranian president is accused by human rights groups of carrying out mass executions of thousands of political dissidents in the late 1980s. In 2018, London-based Amnesty International said he chaired a “death commission” and called on the United Nations to investigate him for crimes against humanity.
