President Ebrahim Raisi, his foreign minister and other senior officials have been confirmed dead in a helicopter crash after a long overnight search in heavy fog and snow in the mountains of Iran’s rugged East Azerbaijan province. Ta.
Their bodies were found on Monday morning, hours after the helicopter crash, state media said.
The incident poses a challenge for Iran’s senior leadership at a time of heightened regional and global tensions centered on the war in Gaza.
The officials killed are:
Ebrahim Raisi, President of Iran
The 63-year-old Iranian leader has long been seen as the successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, the country’s most powerful figure.
Raisi was a hardline religious conservative with deep ties to Iran’s judiciary and religious elite.
In his early 20s, he was appointed prosecutor in several cities, and in 1989 took a post as deputy prosecutor in the capital, Tehran.
His first attempt at the presidential election in 2017 failed, but he ultimately succeeded in 2021.
Raisi rose through the ranks over the years and in 2016 became chairman of Astan Quds Razavi (AQR), Mashhad’s largest religious endowment group, cementing his position within the Iranian system. AQR is a large bonyad, or charitable trust, with billions of dollars in assets and the custodian of the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Shiite imam.
However, recent Iranian presidents have faced controversy over the years.
In 1988, he was part of the committee that oversaw the execution of a series of political prisoners. This made him unpopular among Iranian opposition groups and led the United States to impose sanctions on him.
More recently, he has been furious about the United States’ stance on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and the failure of other signatories to abide by the deal. As a result, he announced that Iran was ramping up its nuclear program, but also said that Iran had no interest in making bombs.
Raisi was also a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and supported his government’s war against the Syrian rebels, which has left hundreds of thousands dead.
He also led his country in protests in 2022 over the death of Mahsa Amini, who was detained by Iran’s moral police, during which the United Nations said Iran had committed crimes against humanity in its repression. Ta.
Most recently, Raisi led Iran through a standoff with Israel over the ongoing war in Gaza.
Iran has made its opposition to war clear, as have its regional allies in the so-called “Axis of Resistance” against Israel and its Western allies.
Hossein Amirabdollahian, Iranian Foreign Minister
Iran’s top diplomat, who was with President Raisi in the crashed helicopter, played a key role in shifting Iran’s foreign policy away from engagement with the West and towards improved relations with its regional neighbors.
Mr. Amirabdollahian, 60, had held several positions in Iran’s foreign ministry since 1997, including ambassador to Bahrain and deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs.
Raisi appointed him as foreign minister after taking office as president in 2021.
Amirabdollahian helped restore diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia as part of a China-brokered deal and visited the kingdom in 2023 amid a major thaw in relations between the two countries.
Since the outbreak of the Gaza war, Amirabdollahian has traveled throughout the Middle East to coordinate with allies, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and to communicate Iran’s position to countries in the region.
He received his PhD in International Relations from the University of Tehran.
Malik Rahmati, Governor of East Azerbaijan, Iran
Malek Rahmati was recently appointed by the Iranian Cabinet as the new governor of East Azerbaijan province.
Prior to this, he held many roles within Iran’s political system.
He was previously appointed as Director-General of the Iranian Privatization Authority and Deputy Director-General of AQR.
Rahmati also previously headed the Razavi Economic Organization, which was established in the late 1990s to finance AQR. He is also a member of the board of directors and vice president of the Kousar Economic Organization, an organization active in many economic sectors, including mining, agriculture, and healthcare.
Mr. Rahmati also held several other management positions in Iran’s Ministry of Interior.
Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Al Hashem, Representative of the Supreme Leader of Iran to East Azerbaijan
Mohammad Ali Al-Hashem, a representative of the supreme leadership of East Azerbaijan province and the imam of Tabriz city, was also among those killed.
Mr. Al Hashim was also a member of the Provincial Chamber of the Expediency Council and a Provincial Member of the Council of Experts.
Who else was killed?
Raisi’s escort team leader Sardar Seyed Mehdi Mousavi, helicopter pilot Colonel Seyed Taher Mostafavi, co-pilot Colonel Mohsen Daryanush, and flight engineer Major Behrouz Ghadimi were also killed in the crash.
Aviation analyst Kyle Bailey told Al Jazeera that the lack of contact from the helicopter pilot or other flight crew meant the crash was likely due to a “significant piloting issue.” Ta.
If a helicopter encounters a serious technical problem mid-flight, the pilot’s first job is “to keep the plane flying, and communications is second,” he said.
