Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has been confirmed dead in a helicopter crash.
The helicopter, carrying the foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of East Azarbaijan province Malek Rahmati, and the leader of the Friday prayer in Tabriz, Hojjatoleslam Al Hashem, also crashed in the Varzaqan area on Sunday afternoon.
After searching the steep terrain all night long in the thick fog, search and rescue crews discovered the wreckage early on Monday. In 2021, Raisi, then sixty-three, was elected president a second time.
He was thought to be a possible replacement for Ayatollah Khamenei, the nation’s supreme leader, who has served in that capacity since 1989.
Raisi was appointed chief justice by Khamenei in 2019.
Raisi was also deputy chairman of the Assembly of Experts — the 88-member clerical body responsible for electing the next supreme leader.
State media report that the Iranian government held an emergency meeting after the president and some members of the cabinet were confirmed dead on Monday.
Vice President Mohammad Mokhber led the emergency meeting.
