DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, 20 May (AP) \u2014 Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the country\u2019s foreign minister were found dead Monday hours after their helicopter crashed in fog, leaving the Islamic Republic without two key leaders as extraordinary tensions grip the wider Middle East.<\/p>\n
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in the Shiite theocracy, quickly named a little-known vice president as caretaker and insisted the government was in control, but the deaths mark yet another blow to a country beset by pressures both at home and abroad.<\/p>\n
Iran has offered no cause for the crash nor suggested sabotage brought down the helicopter, which fell in mountainous terrain in a sudden, intense fog.<\/p>\n
In Tehran, Iran\u2019s capital, businesses were open and children attended school Monday. However, there was a noticeable presence of both uniformed and plainclothes security forces downtown.<\/p>\n
The crash comes as the Israel-Hamas war roils the region. Iran-backed Hamas led the attack that started the conflict, and Hezbollah, also supported by Tehran, has fired rockets at Israel. Last month, Iran launched its own an unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel.<\/p>\n
A hard-liner who formerly led the country\u2019s judiciary, Raisi was viewed as a protege of Khamenei. During his tenure, relations have also continued to deteriorate with the West as Iran enriched uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels and supplied bomb-carrying drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
His government has also faced years of mass protests over the ailing economy and women\u2019s rights \u2014 making the moment that much more sensitive.<\/p>\n
The crash killed all eight people aboard a Bell helicopter, which Iran purchased in the early 2000s, according to the state-run IRNA news agency reported. Among the dead were Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran\u2019s East Azerbaijan province, a senior cleric from Tabriz, a Revolutionary Guard official, and three crew members, IRNA said.<\/p>\n
Iran has flown Bell helicopters extensively since the shah\u2019s era. But aircraft in Iran face a shortage of parts, in part because of Western sanctions, and often fly without safety checks. Against that backdrop, former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif sought to blame the United States for the crash in an interview Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the main culprits of yesterday\u2019s 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,\u201d Zarif said. \u201cThese will be recorded in the list of U.S. crimes against the Iranian people.\u201d<\/p>\n
State TV gave no immediate cause for the crash that occurred in Iran\u2019s East Azerbaijan province. Footage released by IRNA early Monday showed what the agency described as the crash site, across a steep valley in a green mountain range.<\/p>\n
The U.S. has yet to comment publicly on Raisi\u2019s death. Ali Bagheri Kani, a nuclear negotiator for Iran, will serve as the country\u2019s acting foreign minister, state TV said.<\/p>\n
Condolences poured in from neighbors and allies after Iran confirmed there were no survivors from the crash. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a post on the social media platform X that his country \u201cstands with Iran in this time of sorrow.\u201d Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a statement released by the Kremlin, described Raisi \u201cas a true friend of Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, China\u2019s Xi Jinping and Syrian President Bashar Assad also offered condolences. Azerbaijan\u2019s president, Ilham Aliyev, said he and his government were \u201cdeeply shocked.\u201d Raisi, 63, was returning Sunday from Iran\u2019s border with Azerbaijan, where he inaugurated a dam with Aliyev when the crash happened.<\/p>\n
The death also stunned Iranians, and Khamenei declared five days of public mourning. But many have been ground down by the collapse of the country\u2019s rial currency and worries about regional conflicts spinning out of control with Israel or even with Pakistan, which Iran exchanged fire with this year as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe tried to carry out his duties well, but I don\u2019t think he was as successful as he should have been,\u201d said Mahrooz Mohammadi Zadeh, 53, a resident of Tehran. \u201cHe did carry out his duties, I\u2019m not saying he didn\u2019t, but he was a bit weak.\u201d<\/p>\n
Khamenei stressed the business of Iran\u2019s government would continue no matter what \u2014 but Raisi\u2019s death raised the specter of what will happen after the 85-year-old supreme leader either resigns or dies. Final say in all matters of state rest with his office and only two men have held the position since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.<\/p>\n
Raisi had been discussed as one possible contender for the role. The only other person so far suggested has been Khamenei\u2019s 55-year-old son, Mojtaba. However, some have raised concerns over the position going to a family member, particularly after the revolution overthrew the hereditary Pahlavi monarchy of the shah.<\/p>\n
For now, Khamenei has named the first vice president, Mohammad Mokhber, as caretaker, in line with the constitution, which says a new presidential election should be called within 50 days.<\/p>\n
Mokhber had already begun receiving calls from officials and foreign governments in Raisi\u2019s absence, state media reported.<\/p>\n
An emergency meeting of Iran\u2019s Cabinet was held as state media made the announcement Monday morning. The Cabinet issued a statement afterward pledging it would follow Raisi\u2019s path and that \u201cwith the help of God and the people, there will be no problem with management of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raisi won Iran\u2019s 2021 presidential election, a vote that saw the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic\u2019s history. He was sanctioned by the U.S. 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.<\/p>\n
Under Raisi, Iran now enriches uranium at nearly weapons-grade levels and hampers international inspections. Iran has armed Russia in its war on Ukraine, as well as launched a massive drone-and-missile attack on Israel amid its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It also has continued arming proxy groups in the Mideast, like Yemen\u2019s Houthi rebels and Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, mass protests in the country have raged for years. The most recent involved the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who had been earlier detained over her allegedly loose headscarf, or hijab. The monthslong security crackdown that followed the demonstrations killed more than 500 people and saw over 22,000 detained.<\/p>\n
In March, a United Nations investigative panel found that Iran was responsible for the \u201cphysical violence\u201d that led to Amini\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Raisi is the second Iranian president to die in office. In 1981, a bomb blast killed President Mohammad Ali Rajai in the chaotic days after the country\u2019s Islamic Revolution.<\/p>\n
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