New Speculations In Iran As President Ebrahim Raisi Dies In Helicopter Crash

President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran has been confirmed killed in a helicopter crash and with it fuelling speculations on new power tussle in the country.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was also killed in Sunday’s crash, along with several others

Earlier rescuers who reached the crash site in north-western Iran said there was “no sign of life” there

The helicopter – one of three travelling in a convoy – crashed after it got into difficulties in heavy fog in the north of the country

Raisi was heading to the city of Tabriz, in the north west of Iran, after returning from an Iran-Azerbaijan border area, according to local media.

The incident sparked a massive search operation that was hampered by bad weather conditions.

The names of some of those killed in the helicopter crash besides Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian have now been released.

The IRNA state news agency says that also on board were Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Al-e Hashem, the imam for Friday prayers in the city of Tabriz, and General Malek Rahmati, the governor of the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan.

The commander of the president’s protection unit, Sardar Seyed Mehdi Mousavi, was also killed, as were a number of bodyguards and helicopter crew who have not yet been named.

The tragic fate of Iran’s hard-line president is not expected to disrupt the direction of Iranian policy or jolt the Islamic Republic in any consequential way.

But it will test a system where conservative hardliners now dominate all branches of power, both elected and unelected.

His opponents will hail the exit of a former prosecutor accused of a decisive role in the mass execution of political prisoners in the 1980’s which he denied; they will hope the end of his rule hastens the end of this regime.

For Iran’s ruling conservatives, the state funeral will be an occasion freighted with emotion; it will also be an opportunity to start sending their signals of continuity.

Another critical position which must be filled is the seat held by this middle-ranking cleric on the Assembly of Experts, the body empowered to choose the new supreme leader, when that far more consequential transition comes.

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