Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei today confirmed that First Vice President Mohammad Mohbar will temporarily lead the country's executive branch. as provided for by the constitution, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
According to Khamenei, Mokhber will have a maximum of 50 days to organize elections in coordination with the heads of the judiciary and legislature. Iran's supreme leader said this in a message in which he expressed his condolences after the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash yesterday, which also killed the country's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian. The crashed helicopter was found earlier today. The national news agency IRNA reported that Ayatollah Khamenei has declared five days of national mourning.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian are among the nine victims of a helicopter crash in a mountainous region in northwestern Iran, local media reported today, quoted by DPA. The accident took place in bad weather conditions.
Iran's cabinet convened for a second emergency meeting in less than 24 hours after the death of the head of state and his companions was confirmed, Iranian media also reported. First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber has already chaired a meeting last night after it became clear that the helicopter disappeared over the province of East Azerbaijan. All nine people on board died.
According to the procedure, after the death of Raisi, power should temporarily take over to Mohber, after the approval of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. New elections must be produced within 50 days. This morning, the state news agency IRNA published drone photos showing the wreckage of the completely destroyed helicopter, which had fallen on a steep slope in the middle of a forest.
Raisi and Abdolakhian were returning from a meeting with the president of neighboring Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev yesterday afternoon when their helicopter disappeared from radar in dense fog. The two were part of an Iranian delegation for the opening of a dam on the border with Azerbaijan, built jointly by both countries.
After the ceremony, the Iranian delegation flew back to Tehran in a total of three helicopters. However, only two of them landed successfully, and the machine on which the president was also crashed. There has been speculation whether the cause of the crash was bad weather in the area, a technical problem or even sabotage. The Iranian authorities have so far not given an official reason for the incident.
Difficult weather conditions made searching the crash site extremely difficult at night. The remote, muddy area over which the helicopter disappeared made access by car impossible. That forced rescue teams to conduct the search on foot, local media reported. Iran's aircraft are considered obsolete, and their modernization is making little progress amid tough international sanctions.
Many of Iran's aircraft were purchased before the Islamic Revolution of 1979, when the country maintained close relations with the United States. Raisi was sworn in as Iran's president in August 2021. He won the presidential election with just under 62% as the leading candidate of political hardliners and Khamenei's preferred candidate and protégé, DPA noted.
Under Iran's constitution, despite the title of president, Raisi was number two in the country's power hierarchy, as Khamenei is considered the de facto head of state and has the final say on strategic matters. Khamenei is also the supreme commander of the armed forces. Experts considered Raisi the likely successor to the supreme leader, who turned 85 in April. In Iran, Raisi has come under pressure as the country's young citizens increasingly criticize the Islamic Republic. Raisi's government has been criticized for years for its ultra-conservative views, crackdown on civil rights and Iran's severe economic crisis.