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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”.
Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi dies in helicopter crash
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.
More here.
How were Iran’s relations with the US under Raisi’s rule?
Ebrahim Raisi’s election came at a time when relations between Tehran and Washington were particularly tense following former US president Donald Trump’s 2018 decision to unilaterally withdraw America from a nuclear deal aimed at limiting Iran’s uranium enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief.
While Mr Raisi said he wanted to rejoin the deal with world powers, his new administration instead pushed back against international inspections of nuclear facilities, in part over an alleged sabotage campaign that Tehran blamed on Israel. Talks to restore the accord remained stalled in his government’s first months.
“Sanctions are the US’s new way of war with the nations of the world,” Raisi told the United Nations in September 2021. “The policy of ‘maximum oppression’ is still on. We want nothing more than what is rightfully ours.”
EU foreign policy chief extends condolences to crash victims’ families
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has offered his condolences to the families of those who died in Monday’s helicopter crash.
“The EU expresses its sympathies to the families of all the victims and to the Iranian citizens affected,” he said in a statement.
Lebanon and Syria announce three-day mourning period
Lebanon and Syria have both announced three days of national mourning for the Iranian president and foreign minister.
Iran enjoys sway in both countries, backing the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in Lebanon and helping Syria’s government and security forces to remain in power throughout more than a decade of war.
“I can’t tell you how sorry I am about this incident that happened. Especially that the foreign minister had become a friend,” his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib told reporters.
Meanwhile, Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad – as well as other Lebanese officials and Hezbollah – offered their condolences for the deaths.
Head of UN’s atomic watchdog holds minute’s silence for Raisi
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 expects all agreements with Iran to be implemented in wake of Raisi’s death, minister says
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 .
China’s Xi Jingping says death of ‘good friend’ Raisi is ‘a huge loss’
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.
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad mourn Iranian officials killed in helicopter crash
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 appoints new acting foreign minister
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.
Who was Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi?
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.
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2024-05-20 10:43:16Z
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