Officials and state media said the charred wreckage of the helicopter carrying Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was found early on Monday after an overnight search.
“President Raisi, the foreign minister and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash,” a senior Iranian official was quoted by Reuters moments before Vice President Mohsen Mansouri confirmed the president’s death on state television and social media.
The Bell 212 helicopter carrying the president is said to have slammed into a mountain peak, although an official statement on the cause of the crash is yet to be released.
The 63-year-old was elected president in 2021. He was seen as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Touted as a hardliner, he has in recent years tightened morality laws, crackdown on anti-government protests and pushed hard in nuclear talks with world powers.
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