Ebrahim Raisi, 63, Iran’s ultraconservative president, and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, died in a helicopter crash in a remote part of northwestern Iran on Sunday, as the two were returning from a ceremony commemorating the inauguration of a dam on Iran’s border with Azerbaijan, according to official media.
The deaths of two of Iran’s most powerful political heavyweights come as the country faces enormous economic and political strain, with tensions with neighboring Israel at a perilous high, and adding to the country’s hardline religious establishment’s anxiety as regional tensions and domestic dissatisfaction rise.
The Red Crescent’s drone footage of the helicopter wreckage, aired on Iranian official television, showed what remained at the crash scene on a steep, forested hillside, with nothing left of the helicopter other than its blue and white tail.
Raisi’s death comes at a critical moment for Tehran, seven months into Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, which has sparked tensions throughout the Middle East and dragged a decades-long shadow conflict between Israel and Iran into the open.
The 63-year-old, who had represented conservative and hardline forces in Iranian politics, had been president for over three years and had been expected to stand for re-election next year.
Raisi, a former chief justice, had also been widely regarded as the potential successor to Iran’s 85-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Raisi was born in Mashhad, northern Iran, a holy center for Shia Muslims. He received religious education and training at the Qom Seminary, where he studied under notable intellectuals such as Khamenei.
Raisi’s experience as a prosecutor began in a variety of jurisdictions before moving to Tehran in 1985. According to human rights groups, he was on a committee of judges in the capital city that oversaw the killings of political detainees.
The late president was a longtime member of the Assembly of Experts, which is responsible for appointing a successor to the supreme leader in the event of his death.
In 2014, he was selected by Khamenei to oversee the Astan Quds Razavi and served as its principal attorney for two years. The huge charity trust has billions of dollars in assets and maintains Imam Reza, the eighth Shia imam’s mausoleum.
Raisi first campaigned for president in 2017, but failed to defeat former President Hassan Rouhani, who represented the centrist and moderate groups.
After a brief absence, Raisi made news as the new head of Iran’s court system, appointed by Khamenei in 2019. He positioned himself as a protector of justice and a fighter against corruption, and he traveled extensively across the provinces to gather public support.
Raisi was elected president in 2021 despite low voting attendance and widespread disqualification of reformist and moderate candidates, and he seemed to be well-positioned for reelection.
Like other senior Iranian leaders, he saved his toughest vitriol for Israel and the United States, followed by their Western supporters.
Raisi has criticized Israel since the beginning of the assault on Gaza in October, condemning Israel’s “genocide” against Palestinians and urging the international community to act.