Outlook Web Desk
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was declared dead today after a helicopter carrying him, the foreign minister and eight other officials crashed in the northwestern region of Iran.
The helicopter carrying the Iranian president, foreign minister and other officials crashed on Sunday night. The crash took place amid the President's visit from the East Azerbaijan region. After the crash, a mass search and rescue operation was launched to search for the missing chopper, which was found on Monday morning.
Along with President Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem; the representative of the Supreme Leader in East Azarbaijan province; East Azarbaijan Governor-General Malek Rahmati; Second Brigadier General Mehdi Mousavi, the head of Raisi’s security team; a member of IRGC’s Ansar al-Mahdi division; the pilot, co-pilot, and crew chief of the helicopter, were killed.
Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei approved Mokhber's transfer to the role of acting president from first vice president. As per the Ayatollah, Mokhber will manage the executive branch and must work towards electing a new president within 50 days.
63-year-old Ebrahim Raisi, often referred to as a hardline protégé of the Supreme Leader, passed away on Monday in a helicopter crash. He was the eighth president of Iran and was elected in 2021.
The late president was often referred to as the protégé of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. However, many also referred Raisi has the Butcher of Tehran.
Before his term as President, Ebrahim Raisi was accused of being one of the four judges that oversaw the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 after the Iran-Iraq war.
Raisi's death comes amid high tensions in the Middle East. Under him, Iran launched retaliatory drone-and-missile attacks on Israel last month.
He also saw the production of uranium enriched to near-weapons grade levels, which caused tensions with the West.