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Iran has declared five days of mourning after president Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash amid heavy fog in northern Iran, as world leaders share their reactions.
Rescuers found the helicopter that was carrying the Iranian president, as well as the country’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and other senior officials, after it crashed in a mountainous northwest region of Iran.
Minutes after the Red Crescent Society announced its team had reached the site of the crash, state TV reported that there were “no signs of life” and an official said the helicopter had been “completely burned”.
The state-run Mehr news agency then announced that the president and foreign minister had been “martyred”.
Iran’s first vice president Mohammad Mokhber will take charge of the executive branch and has a maximum period of 50 days to hold elections following the death of president Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said.
China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin were among leaders to share their reactions on Monday morning, both of whom lamented the death of their “good friend”.
Key points
- New acting president appointed with 50 days to hold elections
- Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi declared dead by state media
- Turkish authorities could not detect helicopter’s signal, minister says
- First images of the wreckage of president Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter
- ‘No sign of life’ at crash site of Iranian president’s helicopter
- Mapped: Where was the crash?
Watch: Close-up of Iranian president's helicopter wreckage broadcast on TV after crash
Raisi’s death could see infighting unlike anything since 1980s, expert suggests
In the wake of Ebrahim Raisi’s death, powerful actors including the Revolutionary Guards and influential clerics in Qom are now expected to step up efforts to shape the process by which the next supreme leader is picked, a former Iranian official has told Reuters.
While Khamenei has not endorsed a successor, Iran watchers say Raisi was one of the two names most often mentioned, with the second being Khamenei’s second son, Mojtaba, who is widely believed to wield influence behind the scenes.
Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, said that “none but a handful at the top likely know how much of the Raisi-as-heir narrative had a basis in reality”, adding: “But if this was the plan, Raisi’s death introduces great uncertainty in the succession.”
Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said many viewed Khamenei’s role in promoting Raisi as a sign that he wanted him as successor.
His death “could result in internal infighting in [the] regime unlike anything we have seen since the early 1980s”, he said.
Iran using ‘very malign influence’ to destabilise Middle East, UK minister says
Defence minister Leo Docherty has warned that Iran is using “its very malign influence” to destabilise the Middle East.
Asking questions of defence ministers in the House of Commons, Tory MP Bob Blackman said: “Clearly, the brave resistance fighters in Iran will be celebrating the demise of the Butcher of Tehran today, but of course Iran controls Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist organisations.
“Given the attack by Iran on Israel, what further assessment has my honourable friend taken of the potential for Iran to launch another attack?”
Mr Docherty said Iran “uses its very malign influence to continue to destabilise the Middle East through its pernicious use of proxies, and our judgment is that that capability and intent remains”.
Andy Gregory20 May 2024 15:54 1716214232Tory security minister says he will not mourn Raisi in rebuke to EU chief
Britain’s security minister Tom Tugendhat has said he will not mourn the death of Ebrahim Raisi, noting that the late Iranian president’s “regime has murdered thousands at home, and targeted people here in Britain and across Europe”.
He made his remarks in response to comments by European Council president Charles Michel in which he said the EU offered its sincere condolences for the deaths of Mr Raisi, Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and the others on board.
Andy Gregory20 May 2024 15:10 1716213495Turkish authorities could not locate helicopter’s signal, minister says
The helicopter did not have its signal system turned on or did not possess such a system, Turkey’s transport minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu has claimed.
Mr Uraloglu told reporters that since Iran fell within Turkey’s area of responsibility for emergency response, authorities had checked for a signal from the helicopter upon hearing news that it had crashed.
“But unfortunately, [we think] most likely the signal system was turned off or that the helicopter did not have that signal system, because those signals would definitely see those signals, but they didn’t [show this time],” he said.
Andy Gregory20 May 2024 14:58 1716213010Who was on board the helicopter?
The helicopter was carrying Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi, foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province and others officials, according to the state-run Irna news agency.
Mr Raisi was returning on Sunday after traveling to Iran’s border with Azerbaijan to inaugurate a dam with Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev when the crash happened in the Dizmar forest.
The crash killed eight people in all, including three crew members aboard the Bell helicopter, which Iran purchased in the early 2000s, Irna reported.
Andy Gregory20 May 2024 14:50 1716211385Taliban ‘grieving’ over death of Raisi
The Taliban has said they were deeply saddened by the deaths of Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi and the country’s foreign minister.
“We share our grief with the Islamic Republic of Iran and the people of that country and offer our condolences to all the families of the victims, the nation and the government of Iran,” the Taliban prime minister, Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, said in a statement.
Andy Gregory20 May 2024 14:23 1716210787‘Pity’ Netanyahu wasn’t on Iran president’s chopper, university official says
The chair of Tel Aviv University’s Executive Council said he thought it was a “pity” Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not onboard the helicopter crash that crashed and killed Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi.
“A pity Netanyahu was not on the helicopter too. One accident can solve many problems for us and the world,” Eli Gelman wrote in a private WhatsApp group, with a link to an article about the accident.
In response to a comment in the group calling for him to delete the post, Gelman doubled down on his comment.
Alexander Butler20 May 2024 14:13 1716210305Russia can assist Iran with probe into helicopter crash, says Shoigu
Russia can assist Iran with its investigation into the helicopter crash, the secretary of Russia’s security council Sergei Shoigu has said, according to the state RIA news agency.
Andy Gregory20 May 2024 14:05 1716209225Ex-Iranian minister blames US sanctions for fatal crash
Aircraft in Iran face a shortage of parts, often flying without safety checks against the backdrop of Western sanctions. Because of that, former Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif sought to blame the United States for the fatal helicopter crash.
“One of the main culprits of yesterday’s tragedy is the United States, which ... embargoed the sale of aircraft and aviation parts to Iran and does not allow the people of Iran to enjoy good aviation facilities,” Mr Zarif said. “These will be recorded in the list of US crimes against the Iranian people.”
Raisi was flying in a US-made Bell 212 helicopter, according to reports.
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