Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi was killed when his ageing US-built helicopter came down in bad weather near the border with Azerbaijan, setting the stage for potentially destabilising elections.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, on Monday appointed first vice president Mohammad Mokhber as acting president and ordered five days of national mourning.
Mr Raisi, 63, and foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were among those found dead at the site of the crash in a steep mountain valley.
They were returning from the opening of a dam project built jointly with the Azerbaijani government.
Rescue teams fought blizzards and difficult terrain through the night to reach the wreckage in the early hours of Monday.
“With the discovery of the crash site, no signs of life have been detected among the helicopter's passengers,” the head of Iran’s Red Crescent, Pirhossein Kolivand, told state TV.
One of the passengers on board, Mohammad Ali Al-Hashem, survived for a whole hour after the crash and attempted to make contact with the president’s office, authorities said. He was an imam of Tabriz, the city to which the convoy was travelling.
Mohammad Nami, head of Iran's Crisis Management Agency, said: “No DNA tests were needed to identify the passengers.”
Drone footage of the site was shared by Irna, the Iranian state news agency. Only the helicopter’s tail appeared intact.
The model was a US-made Bell 212, a veteran of the Vietnam War that was bought by Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
US sanctions have made it harder for Iran to service its ageing choppers dating prior to then.
After an emergency meeting of Iran's Cabinet, ministers pledged in a statement to follow Mr Raisi's path and that "with the help of God and the people, there will be no problem with management of the country".
Iran’s constitution mandates that when a vacancy arises, the first vice president becomes interim president subject to the approval of the supreme leader, heading a three-man council tasked with organising a new election within 50 days.
Mr Raisi won Iran’s 2021 presidential election, a stage-managed vote that saw the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history.
In London, Deputy Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell was expected to brief the House of Commons later on Monday about events in the Middle East, including in Iran and the war in Gaza.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the UK was still monitoring the reports coming out of Iran but was “not disputing” that Mr Raisi had been killed. Britain will always support the principle of free and fair elections, he added, ahead of the coming polls in Iran.
But Home Office security minister Tom Tugendhat issued a scathing appraisal as he retweeted a message of condolence sent by EU Council president Charles Michel.
Mr Tugendhat said: “President Raisi’s regime has murdered thousands at home, and targeted people here in Britain and across Europe.
“I will not mourn him.”
Under the late president’s administration and the overall rule of the supreme leader, Iran endured a slow-burn economic crisis and some of its worst unrest since 1979, while stoking tensions across the region.
His death comes amid the worst relations between Iran and Israel in years following tit-for-tat military strikes, but state media coverage of the crash focussed on the weather instead of any foul play. One Israeli official said: “It wasn’t us.”
Hamas, which is backed by Iran, issued a statement conveying its “deepest condolences and solidarity” to Ali Khamenei and the Iranian people for “this immense loss”. There were condolences from Gulf governments along with Russia and China.
Rather than an accident, Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said that many Iranians would suspect foul play linked to internal regime tensions.
The analyst warned of a “succession crisis in Iran”, with Mr Raisi and Mojtaba Khamenei seen as the top contenders to replace the 85-year-old Ayatollah Khamenei, who is Mojtaba’s father.
“In Iran’s conspiratorial political culture few will believe Raisi’s death was accidental,” he wrote.
Mr Sadjadpour added: “Mojtaba Khamenei’s anointment as Supreme Leader could trigger popular unrest. His lack of legitimacy and popularity means he’d be entirely reliant on the Revolutionary Guards to maintain order. This could hasten the regime’s transition to military rule or its potential collapse.”
After the fatalities were confirmed, state TV aired images of hundreds of mourners praying at various sites across Iran.
But Mr Raisi also had no shortage of enemies.
He was sanctioned by the US in part over his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 at the end of the bloody Iran-Iraq war.
The cleric’s hardline approach was evident again when a year after his election, he ordered tighter enforcement of a law restricting women's dress and behaviour.
Within weeks, a young Kurdish Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, died in police custody after she was arrested for allegedly failing to wear her hijab properly.
Hundreds of people were killed in subsequent protests, according to rights groups.
Among them was Mino Majidi, 62, who was shot dead by police. Her daughters, Roya and Mahsa, posted a tweet of them toasting with beer and the word “helicopter”.
