The Iranian government, meeting early this morning, has confirmed the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter accident along with other senior officials of the Islamic Republic. Following Shiite tradition, official condolences, many of them spread through X, have made mention of Raisi’s “martyrdom.” In a message written by the executive vice president of the government, Mohsar Mansoni, a verse from the Koran is used to refer to the death: “To God we belong, and to Him we return.”
The government’s confirmation has come after the Red Crescent, Iranian television and state agency presumed Iran’s first political figure dead once the remains of the crashed device were completely burned. Foreign Minister Hosein Amir Abdolahian, the governor of East Azerbaijan, Malik Rahmati, and the leader of Friday prayers in the city of Tabriz, Mohammad-Ali Al-Hashem, have also lost their lives in the incident. As soon as the news was confirmed, the first condolences arrived from abroad, the first and most significant, that of Nerendra Modi, the prime minister of India, a country with which Iran has just closed an important strategic agreement.
During the rescue, the head of the Red Crescent, Pir Hosei Kulivand, indicated via Telegram that “No signs were observed that its crew members were alive.” Thermal trackers have been used to try to locate the aircraft’s crew. Both Türkiye and Iraq volunteered overnight to help with rescue efforts. It has also been noted that the European Union has offered satellite terrain monitoring equipment, although this latest information has not been confirmed.
Iranian state television showed videos of the wreckage of the helicopter in a mountainous and forested area in the Varzeqan area of ????East Azerbaijan province, as well as images of members of the rescue teams next to the device in the middle of dense fog. .
The helicopter in which Raisí was traveling disappeared on Sunday when it was returning from the city of Tabriz along with two other devices – which reached their destination without problems – and the official Iranian media reported that it had suffered a “forced landing”, without explaining the causes. .
After the loss of contact, a large device was launched with at least 65 rescue teams, but operations have been affected by bad weather, rain and dense fog in the mountainous area where the incident occurred, he reported. the Red Crescent.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, called on Sunday for calm in the face of Raisi’s unknown whereabouts and assured that “there will be no interruptions in the country’s functions.”
Meanwhile, hundreds of people gathered in the cities of Mashad, Qom and Tehran to pray for the well-being of the ultra-conservative president, according to images broadcast on state television.
Raisi, a 63-year-old hardline religious cleric, had inaugurated this Sunday a dam together with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliev, on the border between the two countries, a project that the two leaders described as a step forward in the bilateral relations.
The ultra-conservative president came to power in 2021, after winning the presidential elections with the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic and was one of the favorites to succeed Khamenei. During his government, repression against activists, women and critics of the regime has intensified.
The current first vice president of Iran is Mohammad Mokhber, 68, who has held the position since 2021 and who previously held positions such as the management of the powerful conglomerate “Execution of the Order of Imam Khomeini” (EIKO, in English) so he is sanctioned by the United States since 2021. It will be Mokhber who must lead the transition council that must lead to the appointment of his successor within a period of 50 days. The speaker of Parliament and the head of the judicial system will also participate in this council.
The challenge for the Iranian authorities now will be to mobilize a population to go to the polls in a system that lacks legitimation, as has been demonstrated in the last two calls. It is also not known who the candidates to succeed him will be, given that all of them have to gain authorization from the authorities.
Given the institutional precariousness, the regime has wanted to erase any suspicion of intentionality in Raisí’s death. The accident occurred on the border with Azerbaijan, a country that is a good ally of Israel and in which the Mossad has an important presence. The Azeri minority in Iran is also important, making up 35% of the population and has been very active during the recent protests. Precisely, last April, Iran carried out the first attack (announced in advance) with missiles on Israel to respond to the attack perpetrated against the Iranian consulate in Damascus a few weeks earlier where several generals of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard died.
