Iranian president helicopter crash updates: Ebrahim Raisi dead as wreckage found

The aircraft went down in between Jolfa and Varzaqan, a region on the border of Azerbaijani exclave Nakhchivan, around 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of the Iranian capital Tehran.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, used a conference on nuclear security in Vienna to call for a minute’s silence in memory of Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi, foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and the other victims of the helicopter crash.

“I extend my condolences on (their) tragic passing,” Mr Grossi wrote on X/Twitter. “Our thoughts are with their families and the people of Iran during this difficult time.”

Grossi visited Iran earlier this month as his agency negotiates with Tehran over how to implement a deal struck last year to expand inspections of the Islamic Republic’s rapidly advancing atomic program.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister said Moscow expected all agreements with Iran to be implemented following president Ebrahim Raisi’s death, Russian state news agency RIA reported .

Chinese president Xi Jinping has expressed his condolences over the death of Ebrahim Raisi, with a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry saying: “His unfortunate death is a huge loss to the Iranian people, and also caused China to lose a good friend.

Mr Xi also praised Raisi’s “important contributions to safeguarding Iran’s security and stability” and for “positive efforts” on China-Iran relations, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also expressed condolences over the death of Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and said China would continue to provide necessary assistance and support to Iran.

Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad – both of which have received military support from Tehran – have issued statements mourning the deaths of Iran’s president and foreign minister.

Hamas said the helicopter crash had “claimed the lives of a group of the best Iranian leaders,” praising their “honorable positions in support of our Palestinian cause, and support for the legitimate struggle of our people against the Zionist entity,” referring to Israel.

“We are confident that the Islamic Republic of Iran will be able — God willing — to overcome the repercussions of this great loss. The dear Iranian people have ancient institutions capable of dealing with this severe ordeal,” the statement said.

The Islamic Jihad, similarly, called the deaths of Ebrahim Raisi and Hossein Amirabdollahian “a great loss for the Palestinian people in these difficult circumstances, as they had a prominent and clear role in supporting and assisting the Palestinian people’s struggle and resistance.”

Iran’s government cabinet has appointed deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani as acting foreign minister following the death of Hossein Amirabdollahian in Monday’s helicopter crash.

Born to a conservative family in eastern Iran, Ebrahim Raisi studied theology at the seminaries in Qom, report my colleagues Athena Stavrou and Shweta Sharma.

He was a teenager when the country’s popular revolution established Iran as a theocracy, but he quickly became an enthusiastic participant in enforcing the vision of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.

At 21 years old, Raisi began serving as a prosecutor, pursuing politically charged cases in the cities of Karaj and Hamadan. He gained a reputation as one of the regime’s most severe figures – a young, brash ideologue, willing to get his hands dirty.

Within a few years, Raisi was appointed as a judge, a rapid rise that was stunning to Iranians and led to years of questions about his professional credentials. Raisi also faces sanctions from the US and other nations over his involvement in the mass execution of prisoners in 1988.

He ran unsuccessfully for president in 2017 against Hassan Rouhani, the relatively moderate cleric who as president reached Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

In 2021, Raisi ran again in an election that saw all of his potentially prominent opponents barred from running under Iran’s vetting system. He swept nearly 62 per cent of the 28.9 million votes, the lowest turnout by percentage in the Islamic Republic’s history.

Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi and foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian were among senior officials whose bodies were found at the site of a helicopter crash, following a visit with the Azerbaijani president to discuss the joint Qiz-Qalasi Dam infrastructure project over the Aras River.

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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 official news agency IRNA quoted the country’s leader Ali Khamenei as saying.

Five days of national mourning have been declared by Mr Khamenei.

A hard-liner who formerly led the country’s judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi was viewed as a protege of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – and some analysts had suggested he could replace the 85-year-old leader after his death or resignation.

With Raisi’s death, the only other person so far suggested has been Mojtaba Khameini, the 55-year-old son to the supreme leader. However, some have raised concerns over the position being taken only for the third time since 1979 to a family member, particularly after the Islamic Revolution overthrew the hereditary Pahlavi monarchy of the shah.

Raisi won Iran’s 2021 presidential election, a vote that saw the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history. Raisi is sanctioned by the US in part over his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 at the end of the bloody Iran-Iraq war.