Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has died after a helicopter, carrying him and other officials, crashed in a mountainous area of the country in poor weather.
State TV gave no immediate cause for the crash that occurred in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province in the early hours of Monday.
The 63-year-old leader, hardline factions in Iranian politics, was president for nearly three years. And, he appeared on track to run for re-election next year.
Among the dead was Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, 60.
The helicopter also carried the governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, other officials and bodyguards, AP reported, quoting the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
A former Chief Justice, Raisi was touted as potential successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the 85-year-old supreme leader of Iran.
Raisi was born in Mashhad in northeastern Iran, a religious hub for Shia Muslims.
He underwent religious education and trained at the seminary in Qom, studying under prominent scholars, including Khamenei.
Also like the supreme leader, Raisi wore a black turban, signifying him as a Sayyid.
Sayyid is regarded as a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad(peace be upon him). It is a status with particular significance among Twelver Shia Muslims.
Raisi racked up experience as a prosecutor in multiple jurisdictions before coming to Tehran in 1985.
The late president was a longtime member of the Assembly of Experts, the body tasked with choosing a replacement for the supreme leader in the event of his death.
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Late Raisi became Attorney General in 2014 for two years. During that period, Khamenei appointed him to lead the Astan Quds Razavi.
The colossal bonyad, or charitable trust, has billions of dollars in assets. And, it is the custodian of the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia Imam.
Raisi initially ran for president in 2017, unsuccessfully challenging the re-election of former President Hassan Rouhani. Rouhani represented the centrist and moderate camps.
After a short hiatus, Raisi made headlines as new head of Iranian judiciary system, After Khamenei appointed him in 2019.
He presented himself as a defender of justice and a fighter against corruption. Raisi made many provincial travels to garner popular support.
He promised revenge against Israel after it levelled Tehran’s consulate building in Syria and killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including two generals.
And he welcomed Iran’s response, which was to launch hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel.
Raisi was hawkish on Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which has been in limbo after former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018.
He was a champion of the strategic policy of “resistance” and “resilience” that Khamenei adopted in the face of the harshest-ever sanctions imposed on Iran after the nuclear deal fell through.
A close ally of the IRGC, the late president was also a staunch backer of the “axis of resistance” of political and armed groups that Iran supports across the region, including in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. (Al Jazeera)
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