Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi Killed in Helicopter Crash

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has died after a helicopter carrying him and other officials crashed in a mountainous, forested area amid poor weather.

The 63-year-old, representing conservative and hardline factions in Iranian politics, was president for nearly three years and was expected to run for re-election next year.

Read more: Helicopter Carrying Irans President Raisi Crashes; Search Ongoing

A former chief justice, Raisi was considered a potential successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s 85-year-old supreme leader.Born in Mashhad, a religious hub for Shia Muslims in northeastern Iran, Raisi underwent religious education at the seminary in Qom, studying under prominent scholars, including Khamenei.

Like the supreme leader, he wore a black turban, indicating his status as a sayyid, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, a significant designation among Twelver Shia Muslims.

Raisi gained experience as a prosecutor in various jurisdictions before moving to Tehran in 1985, where human rights organizations claim he was part of a committee overseeing the execution of political prisoners.

He was a long-time member of the Assembly of Experts, responsible for selecting a new supreme leader if necessary.

Appointed attorney general in 2014, he led the Astan Quds Razavi, a massive charitable trust with billions in assets and custodianship of the Imam Reza shrine, by Khamenei’s appointment in 2016.

Raisi first ran for president in 2017, unsuccessfully challenging then-President Hassan Rouhani, who represented the centrist and moderate camps.

In 2019, he was appointed head of the judiciary by Khamenei, presenting himself as a defender of justice and a corruption fighter, often traveling provincially to gain popular support.

Elected president in 2021 amid low voter turnout and wide disqualification of reformist candidates, Raisi was poised for re-election.

His harshest rhetoric targeted Israel and the United States, and he frequently condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza, promising revenge after attacks on Iranian interests.

Raisi supported Iran’s missile and drone strikes on Israel, claiming success despite interception by Israeli allies.

He was hawkish on the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, advocating “resistance” and “resilience” against severe sanctions following the deal’s collapse.

A close ally of the IRGC, Raisi backed the “axis of resistance,” supporting political and armed groups across the region, including in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen.

He strongly supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the war against the Syrian opposition, which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.