Iran names interim leader after death of president in helicopter crash

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei quickly named an interim head of the country’s executive branch following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash.

First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber will serve as acting president for up to 50 days before a presidential election must be held to choose Raisi’s successor.

“I announce five days of public mourning and offer my condolences to the dear people of Iran,” Khamenei said in a statement carried by the official news agency IRNA, per Reuters.

“... Mokhber will manage the executive branch and is obliged to arrange with the heads of the legislative and judicial branches to elect a new president within a maximum of 50 days.”

Like Raisi, Mokhber is seen as a protege of Khamenei, who has the final say in all matters of state in the Shiite theocracy. Mokhber became first vice president in 2021 when Raisi was elected president.

How did Iran’s president die?

Raisi, 63, and others were found dead Monday morning hours after their helicopter crashed in dense fog in a mountainous area of northwest Iran, state media reported. The Bell 212 crashed near Varzaqan, Iran, while traveling from the Khoda Afarin Dam to Tabriz, killing all five passengers and three crew members. Also among the dead were Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, a senior cleric from Tabriz and a Revolutionary Guard official, IRNA said, per CBS News.

State TV gave no immediate cause for the crash. The Iranian Red Crescent said the bodies of all the victims were recovered from the crash site.

Turkish authorities released drone video early Monday showing a heat signature at a site in the wilderness that they “suspected to be wreckage of helicopter,” CBS News reported. The coordinates listed in the video put the fire about 12 miles south of the Azerbaijani-Iranian border, on the side of a steep, forested mountain.

Video released later Monday morning by IRNA showed what the agency described as the crash site on a steep hillside.

Iran’s government flies a variety of helicopters, but international sanctions make it difficult to obtain parts for many of them. Its military air fleet also largely dates back to before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, per CBS News.

The president’s death comes as the Israel-Hamas war continues to rage in the region. Iran-backed Hamas led the attack that started the conflict, and Hezbollah, also supported by Tehran, has fired rockets at Israel, according to The Associated Press. Last month, Iran launched more than 100 drones at Israel, in a retaliatory attack weeks after a strike hit an Iranian government building in Syria.

Raisi was a hard-liner who previously led Iran’s judiciary. Relations deteriorated with the West during his tenure as Iran enriched uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels and supplied bomb-carrying drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine, per AP. The country’s sagging economy and women’s rights have spurred years of mass protests against his government.