'Technical failure' caused copter crash killing Raisi: State media

The deaths of Prez Ebrahim Raisi and foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian leave Iran without two influential figures at a particularly tumultuous moment of international tension and domestic discontent, although analysts and regional officials expect little change in Iran's foreign or domestic policies.
Raisi, 63, and Abdollahian were killed Sunday in a helicopter crash resulting from a "technical failure", Iranian state news media reported.They were travelling from Iran's border with Azerbaijan after inaugurating a dam project when their helicopter went down in a mountainous area near the city of Jolfa. Search and rescue teams scoured a rugged area of dense forest through rain and fog for hours before finding the crash site. There were no survivors.
The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said there would be "no disruption" to the govt's work, and on Monday he said first vice-prez, Mohammad Mokhber, would assume the role of acting prez and must organise elections within 50 days. Raisi was elected prez in 2021. Under the usual timetable, election had been due to take place in 2025. It can now be expected to take place by early July.
A funeral procession will be held in Tabriz city Tuesday. The bodies will then be taken to Tehran for an official funeral.
The death of Raisi, a conservative who crushed dissent and had been viewed as a possible successor to Khamenei, occurred weeks after Tehran came close to open conflict with Israel and the US. And looming over everything is the question of Iran's nuclear programme. Iran has produced nuclear fuel enriched to a level just short of what would be needed to produce several bombs.
Raisi, a hardline religious cleric who came of age during the country's Islamic Revolution, was the second most powerful individual in Iran's political structure after Khamenei. Following his ascent to the presidency in 2021, Raisi consolidated power and marginalised reformists. He continued to expand Iran's regional influence, backing proxies across West Asia that have conducted strikes against Israel and the US, and oversaw a deadly crackdown on protesters, many of them women and youth.
The clandestine war with Israel burst into the open after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, setting off the war in Gaza and a cascade of strikes and counterstrikes across the region. The hostilities became even more pronounced after Israel conducted strikes on a building in the Iranian Embassy complex in Syria in April. Iran retaliated with its first direct attack on Israel after decades of enmity, launching over 300 drones and missiles, almost all of which were shot down. An Israeli official said it was not involved in the crash. US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said he had no insight into the cause of the crash.
Authorities also face domestic anger, with many residents calling for an end to clerical rule. Corruption and West sanctions have ravaged the economy. Govt loyalists packed into mosques to pray for Raisi, but most shops remained open and the authorities made little effort to interrupt ordinary life. (NYT and Reuters)