- Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has confirmed First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber as the country’s acting president after President Ebrahim Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash that also killed Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian.
- Several officials, including a provincial governor, were on board when the aircraft went down in northern Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. They all are believed to be dead.
- Khamenei also declares five days of national mourning. New elections will be held within 50 days.
- World and regional leaders send condolences following the deaths of Raisi and Amirabdollahian.
- 6m ago (10:00 GMT)Erdogan says Turkey will stand by Iran ‘in these difficult and sad times’Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered his deepest condolences over the Iranian president’s death and said he remembers Raisi with “respect and gratitude”.“As Turkiye, we will stand by our neighbor Iran in these difficult and sad times, as we have done many times,” he said in a post on X.
- Lebanon declares 3 days of mourningLebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Makati has declared three days of mourning over the death of Raisi and others who were on board the helicopter.“During the mourning period, flags will fly at half-mast at all public administrations, institutions and municipalities,” the NNA news agency reported.Click here to share on social media
- Who died alongside in the helicopter crash?
- Hossein Amirabdollahian, Iran’s foreign ministerMalik Rahmati, governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan ProvinceAyatollah Mohammad Ali Al-Hashem, representative of the Iranian supreme leader to East AzerbaijanSardar Seyed Mehdi Mousavi, head of Raisi’s guard teamColonel Seyed Taher Mostafavi, the helicopter’s pilotColonel Mohsen Daryanush, the helicopter’s pilot co-pilotMajor Behrouz Ghadimi, flight technician
- From left: Technician Behrouz Ghadimi, pilot Seyed Taher Mostafavi, and co-pilot Mohsen Daryanush, the crew of the helicopter that had Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on board and crashed in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province on May 19, 2024
- First official state funeral expected tomorrowReporting from Tehran, IranThe dead bodies are being transferred to the city of Tabriz where the president’s helicopter was heading towards before crashing.Once the bodies arrive in Tabriz, there will be an autopsy.We are expecting the first official state funeral to take place in Tabriz tomorrow. After that, the bodies are expected to be transferred to the country’s capital, Tehran, where state dignitaries and people will pay their respects.Then, we are expecting the bodies to be transferred to the city of Mashhad for two reasons: first, it was the hometown of President Ebrahim Raisi who was born and raised there and his political career started there; and secondly, the city of Mashhad is the most important religious centre in Iran.We are expecting the burial ceremony to take place also in Mashhad.
- No clear frontrunner for presidencyLuciano Zaccara, a professor of Gulf politics at Qatar University,1 says there had been “no discussion” in Iran about who would run against Raisi in next year’s election as since 1981, all Iranian presidents have served two terms.With the sudden, unexpected death of Raisi, Iran will now have “to start from scratch to see who is going to be the candidate”, Zaccara told Al Jazeera.“We know that from the conservative camp, there we will be a couple of people that might be interested in running, but nobody has really support from the political establishment,” he said.He noted that at the beginning of the Islamic Revolution, there were two occasions when the president had to be replaced. Abolhassan Banisadr was impeached in 1981, and Mohammad Ali Rajai was assassinated in the same year. But, unlike now, Zaccara said, other key political figures had been expected to take over
- Putin extends condolences, calls Raisi a ‘true friend of Russia’Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences to Iran’s Khamenei, describing the deaths of the Iranian president and foreign minister as a “great tragedy,” according to the Kremlin.The Russian leader also took to Telegram to pay tribute to Raisi.“Seyed Ebrahim Raisi was an outstanding politician whose entire life was devoted to serving the Motherland,” Putin wrote. “As a true friend of Russia, he made an invaluable personal contribution to the development of good neighborly relations between our countries and made great efforts to bring them to the level of strategic partnership.”
Iran’s President Raisi, FM Amirabdollahian killed in helicopter crash
