Iran’s president and foreign minister found dead at site where helicopter crashed

Rescuers on Monday found the helicopter that had been carrying the president and other officials including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who also died, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported. It crashed on Sunday near Tavil village in northwest Iran.

Raisi was returning from an event on the border with Azerbaijan in a party of three helicopters when his craft went down with nine people on board, all of who died. There was dense fog in the region, making conditions difficult for rescue teams. The other two helicopters landed safely.

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said intelligence agencies had informed him there is no evidence of foul play in the helicopter crash, NBC reported.

The president’s death comes at a time of turmoil in the Middle East as the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas rages. The conflict has edged Iran, which backs the Islamist militant group, and Israel closer to all-out conflict and led to other Tehran-supported groups, including the Houthis in Yemen and Shiite militias in Iraq, to attack ships around the Red Sea and US bases.

In April, Iran launched an unprecedented barrages of missiles and drones at Israel, its sworn enemy, though they were almost all intercepted and caused little damage. The Jewish state reacted with a limited strike on an air base in Iran.

While tensions between the two countries have since eased, they’re still high with the Israeli military in its eighth month of a war to destroy Hamas — designated a terrorist organization by the US and European Union. 

Raisi, an ultraconservative cleric in his 60s who won a presidential election in 2021, had been seen as a favorite to succeed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader and who’s in his 80s.

He’s likely to be succeed by first Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, who has represented Iran on many recent overseas trips and who like many senior Iranian officials is subject to US sanctions. Elections will probably be held within 50 days, as per the constitution.

Raisi’s death won’t “seriously disrupt Iran’s internal stability, as security forces, the army and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps remain under the control” of the supreme leader, Gregory Brew, an analyst at Eurasia, said in a note. The IRGC is a powerful military and business force and controls many of Iran’s relations…