The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, and his Foreign Minister died in a helicopter crash in northwest Iran, the government announced this Monday. The supreme guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber as interim president on Monday. and announced five days of mourning in the country.
The death of the Iranian president, 63, opens a period of political uncertainty in Irana heavyweight in the Middle East, at a time when the region is shaken by the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas, an ally of the Islamic Republic.
Elected in 2021, Raisi was considered one of the favorites to succeed Khamenei, 85 years old. “The hard-working and tireless president of the Iranian people…has sacrificed his life for the nation,” the government said.
“The great spirit of the popular and revolutionary president of Iran has joined the supreme kingdom,” indicated the official Irna agency. Press agencies and information sites announced his death in the morning after the wreckage of the helicopter was found.
The helicopter he was traveling in Raisi disappeared on Sunday afternoon while flying over a mountainous region of Iran in difficult weather conditions.with rain and dense fog.
The hope of finding the president and the other passengers alive faded throughout Sunday night.
In addition to the president, the plane also included Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, 60, as well as the governor of East Azerbaijan province, the region’s main imam, the president’s security chief and three crew members.
The lifeguards recovered the bodies of the passengers this Monday morning. “We are moving the bodies of the martyrs to Tabriz,” a large city in the northwest, the Red Crescent announced.
International impact
The situation was closely followed by the international community, especially by United States, Russia, China and neighboring countries.
The Indian Prime Minister Nerendra Modi, said Monday that he was “deeply saddened and shocked by the tragic death” of the Iranian president. Other leaders also sent messages of condolences, such as the Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohamed Shia al Sudani.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin paid tribute to a “notable politician” and “true friend of Russia” in a message of condolences, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad proclaimed his “solidarity” with Tehran, which supports him in the civil war. in his country.
For his part, the Chinese presidentXi Jinping, called his death a “great loss for the Iranian people.”
Who was Ebrahim Raisi
Raisi, a 63-year-old ayatollah, has been president of Iran since 2021. Considered an ultra-conservative, He was elected on June 18, 2021 in the first round in elections marked by a record abstention for presidential elections, and in the absence of any major rival.
He always appears wearing a black turban and dressed in a long religious coat. He succeeded the moderate Hasan Rohani, who had defeated him in the 2017 presidential elections and who, after two consecutive terms, could not run again.
Raisi emerged strengthened from the legislative elections held in March, which were the first elections organized at the national level since the outbreak of the protest movement that shook Iran at the end of 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini, who died after being arrested for not respecting the dress code that governs the Islamic Republic.
After the March elections, the Iranian president expressed satisfaction with the “new historic failure inflicted on Iran’s enemies after the riots” of 2022.
Born in November 1960 in the northeastern Shiite holy city of Mashhad, Raisi spent the bulk of his career in the judicial system. Before becoming president, he was the attorney general of Tehran and the country’s attorney general.
Raisi is on the United States blacklist of Iranian leaders sanctioned by Washington, which accuses him of “complicity” in “serious violations of human rights”, something that the Tehran authorities reject.
Source: Ambito
