Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi passed away in a helicopter accident, according to official media.

Iranian state media reported on Monday that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the nation’s foreign minister, and other dignitaries had all been pronounced dead in a helicopter accident.

Due of the continuing Israel-Hamas conflict, which is still causing high regional tensions, Iran lost two of its most important diplomatic leaders in the accident.

Along with the deaths of East Azerbaijan province governor,  foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, and other government officials on board the helicopter, Ebrahim Raisi’s passing was reported by state-run media in Iran on Monday.

Although there was no apparent explanation given for the incident, state media posted pictures of what seemed to be the group’s chopper wreckage online. As they were returning from an event near Iran’s border with Azerbaijan, the chopper crashed in hazy weather in a hilly region of northern Iran.

Iran’s neighbors sparked an immediate international response. In response to the announcement, Pakistan’s government said it will hold a day of mourning. According to Russian official media, President Vladimir Putin expressed his sympathies to Khamenei.

The airplane was thoroughly searched for by rescue teams.
The president of the Iranian Red Crescent Society had previously informed IRNA that Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter had been found by rescue and search teams.

According to IRNA, two of the passengers aboard the aircraft had conversations with the rescue workers. Apart from the twenty rescue teams that were sent to the scene, IRNA also claimed that the Iranian military had deployed people to assist in the rescue effort. The rescue teams included dogs and drones.

Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi reportedly said on Sunday that the president’s helicopter had made a “hard landing” and that rescue operations were underway, according to IRNA.

The Fars News Agency published what seemed to be video footage of rescue teams that had been sent to the area. Earlier in the day, a photo of Ebrahim Raisi and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the dedication of a dam on their shared border was posted on the Iranian government’s X account.

In 2021, Ebrahim Raisi, a politician known for her hardline views, won an election.
In 2021, Ebrahim Raisi, a former priest and judge, was elected president.

As soon as Ebrahim Raisi took office, she declared that Iran will honor its commitment to the nuclear deal, even after then-President Donald Trump chose to withdraw from it in 2018.

Even still, Ebrahim Raisi is seen as being more conservative than Iran’s last president, Hassan Rouhani.

Raisi praised Iran’s attack on Israel last month, after an airstrike near Damascus that killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. While Israel never claimed responsibility for the strike, Iran did. Israel and its allies claim that 99 percent of the missiles and drones fired by Iran during its counterattack were intercepted.

The president of Iran acts as the head of state, whereas Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, sets overall policy.

Following the news of Raisi’s passing, the Iranian government called an emergency conference, and Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, then appointed First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber as acting president. In addition, Khamenei said that the nation will observe five days of mourning.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the supreme leader of Iran sets national policies, supervises their implementation, and has authority over the IRGC and the police.

If the president of Iran dies while in office, the first vice president’s succession plan has to be approved by the supreme leader of Iran, according to Reuters. After then, there will be no fresh elections for fifty days.