President Ebrahim Raisi, his overseas minister and different senior officers have been confirmed lifeless in a helicopter crash after an extended in a single day search in dense fog and snow within the mountainous terrain of Iran's rugged East Azerbaijan province.
Their our bodies had been found Monday morningjust a few hours after them downed helicopterstate media introduced.
The accident challenges the nation's high management, with Iran amid heightened regional and world tensions centered on about the war in Gaza.
Right here's a have a look at the officers who had been killed:
Ebrahim Raisi, president of Iran
The 63-year-old the Iranian leader lengthy thought of the predecessor of Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the nation's highest authority.
Raisi was a hardline spiritual conservative with deep ties to Iran's judiciary and spiritual elite.
Whereas in his early 20s, he was appointed prosecutor in a number of cities till he reached a publish within the capital Tehran to work as a deputy prosecutor in 1989.
His first try to win the presidency in 2017 failed, however he finally succeeded in 2021.
Raisi had risen by the ranks over time, in 2016 changing into chairman of Astan Quds Razavi (AQR), the most important spiritual endowment in Mashhad, which cemented his standing on the founding of Iran. AQR is a colossal bonyad, or charitable belief, that has billions of dollars in belongings and is the custodian of the shrine of Imam Rezai, the eighth Shia imam.
However Iran's most up-to-date president has confronted controversy over time.
In 1988, he was a part of a committee that oversaw a sequence of executions of political prisoners. This made him unpopular among the many Iranian opposition and prompted the US to impose sanctions on him.
Extra just lately, he has been angered by the US's stance on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal – often called the Joint Complete Plan of Motion (JCPOA) – and the shortcoming of different signatories to avoid wasting the pact. Because of this, he introduced that Iran was rising its nuclear program, but additionally mentioned that Tehran was not interested by constructing a bomb.
Raisi was additionally a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, supporting his authorities's struggle in opposition to the Syrian opposition, which has left a whole bunch of 1000’s lifeless.
He additionally led the nation in the course of the 2022 protests over the loss of life of Mahsa Amini within the custody of Iran's ethical police, a interval throughout which the UN mentioned Iran had dedicated crimes against humanity in her stroke.
Most just lately, Raisi led Iran by a conflict with Israel over its ongoing struggle in Gaza.
Iran has been expressed against the waras they’ve their regional allies within the so-called “axis of resistance” to Israel and its Western allies.
Hossein Amirabdollahian, International Minister of Iran
The senior Iranian diplomat, who was with President Raisi within the helicopter that crashed, performed an necessary position in shifting Iran's overseas coverage from engagement with the West to enhancing relations with its regional neighbors.
Amirabdollahian, 60, had served in a number of positions within the Iranian International Ministry since 1997, together with as ambassador to Bahrain and deputy overseas minister for Arab and African affairs.
Raisi appointed him as overseas minister after changing into president in 2021.
Amirabdollahian helped restore Iran's diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia as a part of a The deal brokered by China and visited the dominion in 2023 in a serious thaw in relations between the 2 nations.
Because the outbreak of the struggle in Gaza, Amirabdollahian has traveled throughout the Center East to coordinate with allies, together with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and to convey Iran's positions to nations within the area.
He had a doctorate in worldwide relations from the College of Tehran.
Malik Rahmati, governor of Iran's East Azerbaijan province
Malek Rahmati was just lately appointed the brand new governor of East Azerbaijan province by the Iranian cupboard.
Earlier than that, he had taken on a wide range of roles inside Iran's political system.
He was beforehand appointed head of the Privatization Group of Iran, in addition to deputy director of AQR.
Rahmati was additionally the eleventh head of the Razavi Financial Group, which was established within the late 1990s to offer monetary sources to the AQR; and member of the board of administrators, and vice chairman of the Kowsar Financial Group, an entity lively in lots of financial sectors, together with mining, agriculture and healthcare.
Rahmati had additionally served in a number of different management positions within the Ministry of Inside of Iran.
Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Al-Hashem, consultant of the Iranian Supreme Chief in East Azerbaijan
The supreme chief's consultant in East Azerbaijan province and an imam within the metropolis of Tabriz, Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem, was additionally amongst these killed.
Ale-Hashim was additionally a member of the provincial chamber of the Adequacy Council and a provincial deputy within the Meeting of Consultants.
Who else was killed?
Sardar Seyed Mehdi Mousavi, head of the Raisi guard staff, helicopter pilot Colonel Seyed Taher Mostafavi, co-pilot Colonel Mohsen Daryanush and flight technician Main Behrouz Ghadimi additionally misplaced their lives within the crash.
Aviation analyst Kyle Bailey instructed Al Jazeera that the dearth of communication from the helicopter pilot or one other member of the flight crew doubtless meant the crash was as a result of a “critical controllability situation”.
If a helicopter has a critical technical drawback mid-flight, the pilot's first job is “to maintain the aircraft flying, after which communication could be second,” he mentioned.
