— Iranian President Raisi’s funeral procession to take place today
— Supreme Leader Khamenei confirms Mohammad Mokhber as interim president
TEHRAN: Iran’s military chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri on Monday ordered a probe into the cause of a helicopter crash that killed President Ebrahim Raisi and his entourage.
Bagheri ordered “a high-ranking committee to launch an investigation into the cause of the president’s helicopter crash” that took place on Sunday, the ISNA news agency reported.
Raisi, a hardliner long seen as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a helicopter crash in mountainous terrain near the Azerbaijan border, officials and state media said earlier in the day.
The charred wreckage of the helicopter which crashed on Sunday carrying Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and six other passengers and crew was found early on Monday after an overnight search in blizzard conditions.
Supreme Leader Khamenei, who holds ultimate power with a final say on foreign policy and Iran’s nuclear programme, said First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber would take over as interim president, the official IRNA news agency reported.
“I announce five days of public mourning and offer my condolences to the dear people of Iran,” Khamenei said in a statement. Mokhber, like Raisi, is seen as close to Khamenei.
Under Iran’s constitution, a new presidential election must be held within 50 days.
Footage from Iranian state television showed wreckage scattered on a foggy hillside, while separate images from IRNA showed Red Crescent workers carrying a covered body on a stretcher. All those aboard the helicopter were killed, a senior Iranian official had earlier told Reuters.
Killed alongside Raisi were FM Amirabdollahian, known for his fierce anti-Israel sentiment and scepticism of the West, and seven others, including the governor of East Azerbaijan Province and a senior imam from Tabriz city.
Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani was appointed as acting foreign minister following the death of Amirabdollahian, IRNA said.
A total of nine people were on board the aircraft, according to Tasnim news agency. Raisi’s convoy had included three helicopters, and the other two had “reached their destination safely”, said the news agency.
An Israeli official told Reuters it was not involved in the crash. “It wasn’t us,” said the official, who requested anonymity.
Iranian authorities first raised the alarm on Sunday afternoon when they lost contact with Raisi’s helicopter as it flew through a fog-shrouded mountain area of the Jolfa region of East Azerbaijan province.
The helicopter went down in the Varzeqan region north of Tabriz, IRNA reported, as Raisi returned from an official visit to the border with Azerbaijan.
Raisi had been at the Azerbaijani border to inaugurate the Qiz-Qalasi Dam, a joint project. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, who said he had bid a “friendly farewell” to Raisi earlier in the day, also offered assistance in the rescue.
State media reported that images from the site showed the US-made Bell 212 helicopter slammed into a mountain peak, although there was no official word on the cause of the crash. An Iranian official earlier told Reuters that the helicopter was completely burned in the crash.
Rescue teams fought blizzards and difficult terrain through the night to reach the wreckage in East Azerbaijan province in the early hours of Monday.
“Upon finding the helicopter, there was no sign of the helicopter passengers being alive as of yet,” state TV reported about 15 hours after the aircraft went missing.
The crash comes at a time of growing dissent within Iran over an array of political, social and economic crises. Iran’s clerical rulers face international pressure over Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme and its deepening military ties with Russia during the war in Ukraine.
Since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct 7, provoking Israel’s assault on Gaza that has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, conflagrations involving Iran-aligned groups have erupted throughout the Middle East.
A long “shadow war” between Iran and Israel broke into the open last month with tit-for-tat exchanges of drone and missile fire.
Raisi, 63, was elected president in 2021, and since taking office has ordered a tightening of morality laws, overseen a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests and pushed hard in nuclear talks with world powers.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds ultimate power with a final say on foreign policy and Iran’s nuclear programme, sought to reassure Iranians, saying there would be no disruption to state affairs.
The Iranian government will continue to operate “without the slightest disruption” following Raisi’s death, said a cabinet statement on Monday.
