Iran president dead in helicopter crash

What happened

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is dead, along with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and seven other people traveling aboard a helicopter that crashed Sunday, Iranian state TV said Monday morning. Rescuers reached the remote crash site hours after the helicopter made what authorities originally called a "hard landing" amid thick fog in mountainous terrain in northwestern Iran.

Who said what

"We assure our loyal and appreciative and beloved nation that the path of service will continue with the tireless spirit of Ayatollah Raisi," Raisi's Cabinet said after an emergency meeting.

Raisi, a 63-year-old conservative hardliner elected in 2021, was close with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and widely considered a potential successor to the 85-year-old supreme leader. But he and "his conservative government were not popular among the majority of Iranians because they had reinstated oppressive social rules" and "violently cracked down on dissent," especially mass protests sparked by the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, The New York Times said. Raisi also oversaw Iran's first direct attack on Israel and armed Russia for its war in Ukraine.

What next?

Raisi's death "is not expected to disrupt the direction of Iranian policy or jolt the Islamic Republic in any consequential way," but it will "test" the hardliners' total grip on power, the BBC said. Assuming Khamenei approves, First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber will assume the duties of the presidency, as stipulated in Iran's constitution. Elections are to be called within 50 days.

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