Iran's President Raisi killed in helicopter crash

Iran's government convened an "urgent meeting" on Monday following the announcement that President Ebrahim Raisi and the country's foreign minister were among those who died in a helicopter crash, according to Iranian state news agency IRNA.

The chair that Raisi usually sits in was vacant, and was draped with a black sash in memory of the president, according to a photo shared by state news.

The timing and details of a mourning procession will be announced in the future, state media FARS News Agency reported.

Weather would have played a key role in the helicopter crash that killed Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, said CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton.

Leighton added maintenance of the aircraft would have also played a role, pointing to how Iran has been living under sanctions and using old equipment to transport their high-level leaders.

Iranian media has confirmed the death of Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, aged 63, and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian following a helicopter crash in the country's mountainous province of East Azerbaijan.

Iranian state media Press TV and semi-official Tasnim and Mehr news agencies reported all those on board were killed. 

Reuters also reported the president's death, citing a senior official.

The head of Iran's Red Crescent, Pir-Hossein Kolivand, said earlier Monday there were no signs of life of those traveling on board the helicopter, Iranian state news IRIB reported. 

The helicopter carrying nine people ran into trouble in heavy fog while returning from a trip to the Iran-Azerbaijan border, Iranian officials said Sunday.

The crash prompted an hours-long search-and-rescue operation with assistance from the European Union and Turkey, among others, but emergency crews were hampered by the fog and plummeting temperatures.

Iran will enter a “tumultuous period” following the crash of the helicopter carrying the country’s President Ebrahim Raisi, said Arash Azizi, a contributor at The Atlantic.

Azizi spoke to CNN's Paula Newton before Raisi's death was confirmed.

“The power struggle between different factions in the Islamic republic is surely going to heighten now,” he said

Azizi said there could be a lot of infighting but there would not be a constitutional crisis.

Azizi also noted that Raisi “had a lot of blood on his hands.”

Here's how succession works in the case of a president's death.

Iran’s president is believed dead after Iranian media agencies reported that “no survivors” were found at the crash site of a helicopter carrying him and eight others.

President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were among the senior officials on board the downed helicopter.

Drone footage of the wreckage taken by the Red Crescent and carried on state media FARS News Agency showed the crash site on a steep, wooded hillside, with little remaining of the helicopter beyond a blue and white tail.

The Iranian Constitution mandates that in the case of the death of the president, the first vice president shall assume, with the approval of the Supreme Leader, the powers and functions of the president. 

First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber would assume the role if the current president dies and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approves. Officials said earlier that Mokhber was en route to the area where the president's helicopter went down.

Additionally, the constitution mandates the three heads of the branches of government — the vice president, speaker of the parliament and the head of the judiciary — must arrange for an election to choose a new leader within 50 days of the vice president assuming the role of acting president.

Keep in mind: Iran's supreme leader serves as the final arbiter of domestic and foreign affairs in the Islamic Republic, dwarfing the powers of the country's president.

Unlike his predecessor, the moderate former President Hassan Rouhani, Raisi has fostered a close alliance with Khamenei. Many Iranians believe Raisi is being groomed to be elevated to the supreme leadership.

Iran’s president and foreign minister are presumed dead after Iranian media agencies reported that “no survivors” were found at the crash site of a helicopter carrying the two men and seven others.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were among the senior officials on board the downed helicopter.

Drone footage of the wreckage taken by the Red Crescent and carried on state media FARS News Agency showed the crash site on a steep, wooded hillside, with little remaining of the helicopter beyond a blue and white tail.

No official announcement of their deaths has yet been made.

Reuters news agency also cited an unnamed Iranian official as saying all passengers are feared dead.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was likely traveling on a Bell 212 helicopter that began operating in the late 1960s, according to CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton.

Leighton told CNN's Paula Newton that the difficulty in obtaining spare parts could have played a factor in the crash.

The helicopter was first produced in the United States and then in Canada, Leighton, a retired US Air Force colonel, said.

“So spare parts would have definitely been an issue for the Iranians.”

The crash of a helicopter carrying Iran’s president and foreign minister comes at an especially fraught moment in the Middle East – and for Iran domestically.

Israel’s war against Hamas and the subsequent humanitarian catastrophe that has unfolded in Gaza over the last seven months has inflamed global opinion and sent tensions soaring across the Middle East. 

It has also brought a decades-long shadow war between Iran and Israel out into the open.

Last month Iran launched an unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel — its first ever direct attack on the country — in response to a deadly apparent Israeli airstrike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus that killed a top commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). 

Israel struck back a week later, according to US officials, hitting targets outside the Iranian city of Isfahan with a much smaller, calibrated response. 

Since then the tit-for-tat direct strikes between the two have stopped. But the proxy war continues with Iran-backed militias such as Hamas and Hezbollah continuing to fight Israel’s forces.

Meanwhile, Iran’s hardline leadership has weathered an explosion of recent popular dissent on the streets at home where years of US-led sanctions have hit hard.

The country was convulsed by youth-led demonstrations against clerical rule and worsening economic conditions following the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s notorious morality police.

Iranian authorities have since launched a widening crackdown on dissent in response to the protests.

That crackdown has led to human rights violations, some of which amount to “crimes against humanity,” according to a United Nations report released in March.

And while the protests for now have largely stopped, opposition to clerical leadership remains deeply entrenched among many Iranians, especially the young, who yearn for reform, jobs and a move away from stifling religious rule.

A former hardline judiciary chief with his own brutal human rights record, Raisi was elected president in 2021 in a vote that was heavily engineered by the Islamic Republic’s political elite so that he would run virtually uncontested.

While he is president, his powers are dwarfed by those of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is the final arbiter of domestic and foreign affairs in the Islamic Republic.