Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s foreign minister and others have been found dead at the site of a helicopter crash Monday after an hourslong search through a foggy, mountainous region of the country’s northwest, state media reported. Raisi was 63.
The crash comes at a fraught moment in the Middle East, with war raging in Gaza and weeks after Iran launched a drone-and-missile attack on Israel in response to a deadly strike on its diplomatic compound in Damascus.
Hardliner Raisi became president in a historically uncompetitive election in 2021. Previously the chief justice, he has overseen a period of intensified repression of dissent in a nation convulsed by youth-led protests against clerical rule.
