Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi has been confirmed dead. Ebrahim Raisi died in a deadly helicopter crash that occurred on Sunday, May 19, 2024. According to a report by Al Jazeera, Raisi who represented conservative and hardline factions in Iranian politics was aged 63 at the time of his death. He had been president of Iran for three years.

The helicopter Raisi was traveling in crashed in Iran’s mountainous East Azerbaijan province. He was in the company of his Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

“Several senior Iranian officials were also killed alongside Raisi in the helicopter crash in the Dizmar forest, located between the cities of Varzaqan and Jolfa in East Azerbaijan Province,” Al Jazeera reported.

“Raisi and his companions were returning from an event with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev when the crash happened.”

Why we deny most people US visas at Nairobi US Embassy – US Ambassador Meg Whitman

The Al Jazeera added that Ebrahim Raisi who was a former chief justice in Iran was touted as a potential successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who is the 85-year-old supreme leader of Iran. Raisi was the second-most powerful person in the Islamic Republic’s political structure after Khamenei.

According to a related report that was published by the CNN, it is now highly likely that Iran will be heading to the elections to ‘choose’ a new leader.

“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,” the CNN reported.

“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.”

Raisi’s death comes about a month since Iran launched its first ever direct attack on Israel. The attack, which critics said was choreographed to fail included drones and missile and was touted as a response an Israeli airstrike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus that killed a top commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). In response to this strike, Israel was reported to have hit targets outside the Iranian city of Isfahan.