Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, 63, and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were killed in a helicopter crash on May 19, Sunday. The helicopter, an American made Bell 212, was flying in thick fog and inclement weather near the border with Azerbaijan. There were 6 other victims of the crash.
Raisi flew to Iran’s far northwestern province of East Azerbaijan on Sunday for the inauguration of the Qiz Qalasi and Khoda Afarin dams, joint hydroelectric power projects on the Aras river, built in collaboration with neighboring Azerbaijan. Raisi was joined at the inauguration by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.
Raisi boarded the Bell 212 to fly to the city of Tabriz, approximately 130 kilometers to the south, where he was scheduled to inaugurate an oil refinery. Accompanying Raisi and Abdollahian were Malik Rahmati, the governor of the East Azerbaijan province, and Ayatollah Mohammad Ali al-Hashem, a representative of the Supreme Leader in East Azerbaijan.
Raisi was a former seminarian, and was widely known to be close to Iran’s first Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and also to current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He had won the presidential election in 2021, after having lost in 2017 to Hassan Rouhani. Raisi was widely seen as a hardliner, and had become unpopular due to Iran’s response to the protests that had broken out over the custodial death of Mahsa Amini.
First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber will assume powers as interim president. According to Article 131 of the Iranian constitution, in case of the President’s death or incapacitation, the first vice president is to serve as interim president and elections for President have to be held within 50 days.
Mohammad Mokhber was appointed as first vice president by Raisi in 2021, and has previously served as head of Setad, an Iranian conglomerate.