Iran’s President Raisi killed in helicopter crash

Our live coverage has ended. Read more about the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi here.

Reaction to the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi continued to filter through on Monday.

Read more on the international reaction here.

A rescue team carries a body following a helicopter crash carrying Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, in Varzaqan, Iran, on May 20.

Iran’s chief of staff of the Armed Forces, Mohammad Bagheri, has ordered an investigation into the cause of the helicopter crash that killed President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Tasnim news agency said. 

A high-ranking delegation, headed by a military commander and including technical experts, will go to the crash site in Eastern Azerbaijan, Tasnim said.

The helicopter crashed in a remote mountainous region in northwestern Iran on Sunday, killing Raisi, his foreign minister and seven others.

Iranian presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi waves after casting his ballot for presidential election, in Tehran, Iran, on June 18, 2021.

The upcoming, early election to replace Ebrahim Raisi as president could be a “watershed moment for Iran” if the country’s supreme leader allows a range of candidates to stand, a Middle East expert has told CNN.

“I would argue that the most consequential immediate impact of his death is who will come in his wake,” Mohammad Ali Shabani, the editor of Amwaj.media, told CNN’s Becky Anderson Monday.

“That election can be a watershed moment for Iran,” he said.

Shabani conceded that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “is more inclined towards conservative rule than to open up the political space.”

But he said Khamenei “has always emphasized voter turnout as a litmus test of the legitimacy of the system.”

Raisi became president of Iran in June 2021 after winning a historically uncompetitive presidential election. Many reform-minded Iranians had refused to take part in an election widely seen as a foregone conclusion, and turnout slumped below 50%.

Khamenei “has now… a golden opportunity to, in a face-saving way, reverse course” by allowing competitive elections and encouraging turnout, Shabani said.

The body of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the other victims of Sunday’s helicopter crash will be transferred on Tuesday from Tabriz to the northeastern city of Mashhad, where Raisi was born, according to Fars news. 

A large public ceremony is scheduled to take place at a prayer hall in Tabriz at 4 p.m. local time on Monday, Fars news reported. 

At 9 a.m. local time on Tuesday, a large procession will accompany the bodies of Raisi and the other victims from Tabriz Martyr’s Square to the city’s airport. From there, the bodies will be moved to Mashhad, according to Fars. 

Raisi was born in Mashhad in 1960. He ran the powerful charity known as Astan-e Quds-e Razavi, which manages the huge Imam Reza shrine, a major Islamic holy site in the city.

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi at Saadabad Cultural & Historical Complex in Tehran, Iran, on April 29, 2023.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi was confirmed dead by state media on Monday morning, after a helicopter he was traveling in alongside Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and seven others crashed in foggy conditions in the country’s remote northwest on Sunday.

Here’s what to know now:

Acting president: In the wake of Raisi’s death, Vice President Mohammad Mokhber has been appointed as acting president.

Acting foreign minister: Ali Bagheri Kani, who has led Iranian delegations through indirect negotiations with the United States over nuclear issues and prisoner exchanges, has been appointed acting foreign minister after the death of Amir-Abdollahian, state news agency IRNA reported.

New elections: The Iranian constitution mandates that the three heads of the branches of government, including the vice president, speaker of the parliament, and head of the judiciary, must arrange for an election and elect a new leader within 50 days of assuming the role of acting President. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a message to state news agencies that Mokhber was responsible for organizing elections for a new president within that time.

Public mourning: Ayatollah Khamenei has announced five days of public mourning after the crash, and expressed his condolences. All cultural and arts activities have been canceled in Iran for the next seven days.

Global reaction: The loss of Raisi — a conservative hardliner and protege of Ayatollah Khamenei — is expected to sow further uncertainty in a country already buckling under significant economic and political strain, with tensions with nearby Israel at a dangerous high. His death has already triggered international reaction with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India and the UAE leader expressing their condolences for his death. Lebanon has declared three days of mourning.

Militias respond: Iran-backed militant groups Hamas, the Houthis, and Hezbollah have sent condolences to Tehran over the death of Raisi. 

All cultural and arts activities in Iran will be suspended for seven days following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, the Ministry of Culture announced on Monday.

Raisi died in a helicopter crash at age 63.

The country’s foreign minister and seven others were also killed after the crash in a remote, mountainous area of Iran’s northwest.

Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber speaks during Iran's government cabinet in Tehran, Iran, on May 20.

Iran’s acting president Mohammad Mokhber held an “extraordinary meeting” on Monday with the heads of the legislative and judicial branches following the announcement of President Ebrahim Raisi’s death, according to Iranian state media. 

Mokhber spoke with Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Hujjat al-Islam Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, the head of Iran’s Judiciary, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News. 

The three expressed their condolences and reaffirmed the three branches of government will continue its duties to the nation “without any interruption,” Tasnim reported.  

Iran's Chief Nuclear Negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani leaves the Palais Coburg in Vienna, Austria, on August 4, 2022.

Ali Bagheri Kani, who has led Iranian delegations through indirect negotiations with the United States over nuclear issues and prisoner exchanges, has been appointed acting foreign minister after the death of Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, state news agency IRNA reported.

Amir-Abdollahian was among the nine people killed in a helicopter crash in Iran’s remote northwestern mountainous region on Sunday, along with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

“Following the martyrdom of Hussein Amir Abdollahian, the Foreign Minister of our country, with the approval of the Cabinet Board, Ali Bagheri, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs, was appointed as the acting minister of the ministry,” state news agency IRNA said.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced five days of public mourning after a helicopter crash killed President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s foreign minister, and seven others. 

In a message carried by Iran’s state news agencies, Khamenei expressed his condolences over the deaths and confirmed Iran’s first Vice President Mohammad Mokhber is now managing the executive branch. 

“He is obliged to arrange with the heads of the legislative and judicial branches to elect a new president within a maximum of fifty days.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, shakes hands with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during a meeting in Moscow, Russia, on December 7, 2023.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi as an “outstanding politician” and said his death was an “irreparable loss,” according to a statement from the Kremlin.

“As a true friend of Russia, he made an invaluable personal contribution to the development of good neighborly relations between our countries and made great efforts to bring them to the level of strategic partnership,” Putin said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described Raisi and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian as “true, reliable friends of our country” and added that it was “deeply saddened” by their deaths.

“Their role in strengthening mutually beneficial Russian-Iranian cooperation and trusting partnership is invaluable. We sincerely condole with the families and friends of the victims, as well as with all the friendly people of Iran,” Lavrov said.

The increasingly close relationship between Russia and Iran has become more evident since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Iran has provided Russia with Shahed drones that have been used to fire on Ukraine.

People pray for the well-being of Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi following the crash of a helicopter carrying him, in Tehran, Iran, on May 19.

The spokesperson for Iran’s Guardian Council – a powerful 12-member council in charge of overseeing elections and legislation – has called the death of President Ebrahim Raisi “a great loss for the Iranian nation.”

Spokesman Hadi Tahan Nazif said that while Iran is facing a tragedy with the death of its president, Iran’s constitution has foreseen the necessary measures for this situation.

“Just as the leader of the Islamic Republic stated, the affairs of the country will not be disrupted,” Nazif told Iranian state news agency Press TV. 

Iranian constitution mandates that the three heads of the branches of government, including the vice president, speaker of the parliament, and head of the judiciary, must arrange for an election and elect a new leader within 50 days of assuming the role of acting President.

Meir Javedanfar walks near his home in Tel Aviv on April 21, 2006. 

It will “not be very difficult” to fill the gap after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s death, a Tel Aviv-based analyst told CNN.

“President Raisi was not a very successful president in terms of the economy,” Meir Javedanfar, director of Middle East Economic and Political Analysis Company, told CNN.

“In Iran, the president’s hands are usually tied because although they have a lot of responsibility, the authority to carry out things really remains in the hands of the supreme leader.”

He added that Raisi “was not somebody with a background in security,” nor someone “with a background in Iran’s bureaucracy.”

“He was a chief for the judiciary. He cut his teeth in the judiciary system of the Islamic Republic. And he was not a man of vision. He was not a charismatic politician who came to change things,” Javedanfar said.
“The economy which he was supposed to manage actually got worse under President Raisi.”

CNN has confirmed the geolocation of the crash site of the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in the mountainous region of Varzeghan, near the village of Uzi, in Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province. 

Drone footage and images of the wreckage taken by the Iranian Red Crescent and shown on state media FARS News Agency showed the crash site on a steep, tree-covered hillside.

The accident occurred as Raisi and Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian were returning from a ceremony to open a dam on Iran’s border with Azerbaijan, state news agency IRNA reported. Seven others in the chopper also died in the crash.

The crash site is around 38 miles (61 kilometers) from the dam site on the Iran-Azerbaijan border that the officials were visiting, with the exact location at 38.7189°, 46.6548°

It was first geolocated by Nathan Ruser, an analyst on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Cyber, Tech & Security team (ASPI CTS), which CNN later confirmed. 

The helicopter crashed while traveling to the city of Tabriz, Iran, semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Najib Mikati speaks during a conference in Beirut, Lebanon, on March 13.

Lebanon has announced three days of mourning over the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said.

Lebanon-based Hezbollah — one of the strongest paramilitary forces in the Middle East — is arguably Iran’s most powerful non-state partner.

This post has been updated to correct Najib Mikati’s title.

Iran-backed militant groups Hamas, the Houthis, and Hezbollah have sent condolences to Tehran over the death of the country’s President Ebrahim Raisi. 

Raisi died in a helicopter crash together with his Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Sunday in the East Azerbaijan Province, northwest of Iran.

Hours after their deaths were confirmed, Houthi senior official Mohamed Ali Al-Houthi sent condolences.

“Our deepest condolences to the Iranian people and the Iranian leadership,” he said. “The Iranian people will continue to have leaders loyal to their people. 

The president of the government led by Yemen’s Houthis, Mahdi Al-Mashat, “sent a message of condolences and condolences” to Iran after Raisi’s death.

Hamas said it is extending “its sincere condolences, deep sympathy, and solidarity” to the supreme leader, “to the Iranian government, and to the brotherly Iranian people.”

“We are confident that the Islamic Republic of Iran will be able — with the help of Allah — to overcome the consequences of this great loss, as the dear Iranian people have strong institutions capable of dealing with this severe ordeal,” Hamas said.

Lebanon-based Hezbollah likened Raisi to a “big brother.”

“Hezbollah in Lebanon extends its deepest condolences and feelings of sympathy for (Iran’s Supreme leader, Iranian officials and the Iranian people’s) loss,” a statement by the group said.
“We have known His Eminence the martyr president closely for a long time. He was to us a big brother, a strong supporter, and a staunch defender of our issues and the nation’s issues, most notably Jerusalem and Palestine, and a protector of the resistance movements.”

Hezbollah, one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the Middle East, has clashed with Israel in near-daily cross-border skirmishes since the war in Gaza began.

Iran has provided military and economic backing to Hamas, the Houthis, and Hezbollah.

Leaders across the Middle East and beyond are expressing their condolences after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and eight others were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday.

Those killed also include Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

This post has been updated.

The death of President Ebrahim Raisi couldn’t have come at a “more unstable time” for both Iran and the region, according to CNN’s Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour. 

International outlook

Raisi’s death comes as Israel’s war against Hamas continues into its eighth month, fueling a spiraling humanitarian catastrophe and sending regional tensions soaring.

“The perennial shadow war between Israel and Iran that had been going on broke into the open over the last several weeks,” Amanpour said.

“You can imagine for the United States, for the west, one of the most important issues is the Iran nuclear issue,” she added.

Raisi took the presidency as negotiations with the US over how to revive the 2015 nuclear deal stalled.

“We understand over the last week or so… that the International Atomic Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear agency, that they (US) were back in talks with Iran to make sure that everything was happening within the nuclear regulation,” Amanpour said.

“It’s known that the United States is trying to stabilize issues with Iran, given the volatility of the region right now.”

Domestic outlook

“Iran faces internal protests and discontent that have been crushed brutally in the aftermath of Mahsa Amini’s death,” Amanpour said, referring to the 22-year-old woman who died in the custody of Iran’s morality police after being arrested for allegedly not wearing her headscarf properly.

Amanpour noted that Raisi was at one point considered a successor to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is 85.

“Raisi was then considered to have somewhat disqualified himself given the political and popular uprising against him inside Iran. As well as the economy being really bad for the people, he is not considered to have brought prosperity at all to the Iranian nation,” Amanpour said.

Raisi was no stranger to political crackdowns and was heavily involved in repression in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution that turned the country into an Islamic republic.

“He had been overseeing some of the trials of the revolution and at one point signing off on one that led to the execution of thousands of anti-regime officials,” Amanpour said.

Watch Christiane Amanpour’s full analysis:

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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi holds a news conference in New York on September 20.

The Iranian government expressed its condolences for the deaths of President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and seven others in a helicopter crash in Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province on Sunday. 

In a statement Monday, the president’s cabinet praised Raisi as a “hard-working and tireless” president who served the people of Iran to help advance and progress the country.

The cabinet also reaffirmed that there “will not be the slightest disturbance” in the administration of Iran in the wake of the deadly crash. 

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi attends a meeting in New York on September 20, 2023.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s death “comes at a really tricky time” for the country, an analyst said, as the nation looks to find a new person to garner support as well as loyalty to the system.

“Raisi was of course not a charismatic or personally powerful individual, but he was important as a loyal apparatchiks with it in the system,” said Sanam Vakil, director, Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House in London.
“He was close to, the Supreme Leader, to the (Guard Corps). He had consensus within the system.

Vakil also noted that Iran recently completed parliamentary elections, for which the turn out was “very low.”

“The lowest ever in the history of the Islamic Republic’s 45 years,” she said. “To go through another political transition with less public participation and to try and find a new individual that could generate support from the population as well as loyalty to the system will be tricky.”

Vakil noted that “not too much” may change in terms of foreign policy, but the domestic landscape, which is “notoriously divisive,” will shift.

“Iran has shifted very much to the right and all of Iran’s elected institutions are dominated by conservatives and hardline conservatives,” she said.
“So with Raisi’s death, this is certainly an opportunity for perhaps more pragmatic or left-leaning conservatives to join the race and see if they can emerge after being marginalized.”

Iran will try to ensure everything is under control and that there “will be no chaos” following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, according to Tehran-based journalist and researcher Abas Aslani.

“I think most prominently they have been trying to make sure that the situation is in control and they will survive this in order to prepare for a transition for early election,” he said.
“The cabinet had an emergency meeting this morning. They want to somehow assure people the situation will be in control and there will be no chaos.”

Aslani added that they will want to “make sure the transition happens smoothly.”

The Iranian constitution mandates that the vice president — currently Mohammad Mokhbar — will assume the position of interim president and that new presidential elections will be held within 50 days.

Aslani said: “This is a significant loss for the country, however, I think the most important thing that now they are focusing on is  to survive this situation.”

A screen grab from an IRIB via Tasnim News video shows Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on a helicopter in Iran on May 19.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was killed along with the country’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a helicopter crash on Sunday in the country’s remote northwest, state news media has confirmed.

The loss of Raisi — a conservative hardliner and protege of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — is expected to sow further uncertainty in a country already buckling under significant economic and political strain, with tensions with nearby Israel at a dangerous high.

Here’s the latest:

The bodies of those killed in the helicopter crash that killed Iran’s president will be transported to the city of Tabriz, the head of the Iranian Red Crescent said, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News.

President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were among those killed. 

Search and rescue efforts have ended, Pir-Hossein Kolivand said.

The helicopter crashed while traveling from Iran’s East Azerbaijan province to the city of Tabriz, Tasnim reported.

A screen grab from video released by Mehr News Agency via Telegram shows a rescue team arriving at the site of a helicopter crash in Iran on May 19.

There were low-hanging clouds and cooler-than-average temperatures across the northwestern region of Iran at the time when the helicopter carrying President Ebrahim Raisi and eight others crashed on Sunday.

While it is difficult to get reliable weather data in the higher parts of the country, Tabriz, the closest major city to the crash and the intended destination of the helicopter, showed below-average temperatures at a low of 9.2 degrees Celsius (48 degrees Fahrenheit) around the time of the crash. 

The deadly crash occurred as Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were returning from a ceremony to open a dam on Iran’s border with Azerbaijan, IRNA reported.

Among those onboard were three crew members, the governor of East Azerbaijan Province, an imam, Raisi’s head of security chief, and a bodyguard, according to IRGC-run media outlet Sepah.

Iranian state broadcasters are airing Islamic prayers in between their news broadcasts following the announcement that President Ebrahim Raisi and eight others died after the helicopter they were traveling in crashed in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. 

Iran’s government convened an “urgent meeting” on Monday, according to Iranian state news agency IRNA.

A photo shared by IRNA showed that the chair that Raisi usually sits in was vacant and draped with a black sash in memory of the president.

Iran’s stock market was also closed on Monday, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News, which cited a member of the stock exchange’s board of directors. 

This post has been updated with the stock market’s closure.

Verses from the Quran were shared in a post on the X account of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash along with the country’s foreign minister.

“Peace be upon Abraham. Indeed, We thus reward the doers of good. Indeed, he was of Our believing servants,” the post on the president’s account said, citing Quranic verses. 

Raisi was the second-most powerful person in the Islamic Republic’s political structure after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Emergency and security personnel inspect the site of strikes which hit a building next to the Iranian embassy in Syria's capital Damascus, on April 1.

The death of Iran’s president and foreign minister in a helicopter crash on a remote mountainside 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 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 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 heavily engineered by the Islamic Republic’s political elite so that he would run virtually uncontested.

Raisi defeated a more moderate candidate and his victory was seen to signal the start of a new harder-line era in Iran. Yet turnout for that election was just 41 percent, a record low.

The powers of Iran’s president are ultimately dwarfed by those of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is the final arbiter of domestic and foreign affairs in the Islamic Republic.

With Raisi dead, it is likely new elections will have to be held.

The Iranian constitution mandates that the Vice President — currently Mohammad Mokhbar — will assume the position of interim president and that new presidential elections will be held within 50 days.

That means Iran’s clerical establishment, headed by Khamenei, must now find a new leader they can throw their support behind against a backdrop of intense regional insecurity and domestic discontent.

Iranian President Raisi seat left vacant during the cabinet meeting.

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.

In this still from a video, an ambulance and other vehicles drive on a foggy road following a crash of a helicopter carrying Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, in Varzaqan, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran, May 19.

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

“You have fog, you have rain, you have cold temperatures,” Leighton told CNN’s Paula Newton. “With temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) you find that there’s the possibility at higher altitudes of icing of the rotor blades,” he said.
“There’s a possibility of potentially engine failure, so there are a lot of different things that could in fact, I have been part of this.”

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.

“The other factor in this would be maintenance — whether or not the helicopter was properly maintained.”

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi places his hands on his heart as a gesture of respect to the crowd during a funeral ceremony in Tehran, Iran, on January 5, 2024.

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.

“President Raisi, the foreign minister and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash,” the official told Reuters, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

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.

“They will organize the elections (within) 50 days, so I don’t think you’ll have any a huge surprises there. There might be occasions for popular protests again, as, as there often is when there’s a political crisis,” Azizi said.

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

“Perhaps no other official of the Islamic Republic is responsible for more deaths because he was in the judiciary for many years. And so a lot of Iranians are going to shed no tears,” Raisi said. “But nevertheless it’s a momentous occasion.”

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

A helicopter carrying Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi takes off near the Iran-Azerbaijan border on May 19.

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.

Mohammad Mokhber first vice president of Iran speaks during a meeting at the Ejlas hall in Tehran, Iran on March 27, 2023.

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.

A helicopter carrying Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi takes off, near the Iran-Azerbaijan border, on May 19.

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.

“It was first introduced during the latter period of the Shah’s rule in 1976 in commercial form and it had a life before that in the US military, so the actual start of this particular type of helicopter may have been as early as the late 1960s,” Leighton said.

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

“In this particular case, I think this confluence of spare parts, because of the sanctions, plus the weather which was very bad over the last few days in this particular part of northwestern Iran. All of that, I think contributed to a series of incidents and a series of decisions that the pilot and possibly even the president himself made when it came to flying this aircraft… And unfortunately for them, the result is this crash.”

An anti-missile system operates after Iran launched drones and missiles towards Israel, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel April 14.

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.  

“No survivors” were found at the crash site of the helicopter carrying Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, Iranian state news agency IRINN and semi-official news agency Mehr News reported.

Some background: A former hardline judiciary chief, Raisi was Iran’s eighth president. The former prosecutor and judge was elected in 2021 following a historically uncompetitive presidential contest.

He oversaw a period of intensified repression of dissent, according to human rights monitors.

Next in the line of succession would be First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, if approved by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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 had fostered a close alliance with Khamenei. Many Iranians believed Raisi was being groomed to one day succeed the ailing 85-year-old Khamenei.

CNN’s Tamara Qiblawi contributed reporting to this post.

Nine people were on the helicopter that crashed in northwest Iran on Sunday, including three officials, an imam and flight and security team members, Iran’s Tasnim news reported. 

The IRGC-run media outlet, Sepah, reported the nine included:

Born in 1960, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi attended the seminary in Qom and earned a Ph.D in law from Shahid Motahari University.

He started his career as a prosecutor in the early 1980s, and rose from being prosecutor general of Tehran in 1994 to chief justice of the country by 2019.

His two years as Iran’s chief justice were marked by the intensified repression of dissent and human rights abuses, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran.

Raisi became president of Iran on June 19, 2021, after winning a historically uncompetitive presidential election. Many reform-minded Iranians had refused to take part in an election widely seen as a foregone conclusion. Overall voter turnout was only 48.8% – the lowest since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979.

The US sanctioned Raisi in November 2019, citing his participation in the 1988 “death commission” as a prosecutor, and a United Nations report indicating that Iran’s judiciary approved the execution of at least nine children between 2018 and 2019.

He is the first elected Iranian leader to be under U.S. sanctions.

In 2021, he was elected to the presidency in a contest heavily engineered by the Islamic Republic’s political elite so that he would run virtually unchallenged. His inauguration was seen to signal the start of a new, harder-line era that could herald major shifts in the Islamic Republic’s policies at home and abroad. 

Raisi has long opposed engagement with the West and is a close ally of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Read more about Raisi’s life.

Correction: This post has been updated to remove a reference to former President Hassan Rouhani running in the 2021 election.