Helicopter Carrying Iran's President Has Crashed, State Media Reports

A helicopter carrying President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran and his foreign minister crashed on Sunday in the country's mountainous northwest, according to state media, deepening the turmoil that has gripped the nation on both the international and domestic fronts in recent months.

Mr. Raisi, 63, was traveling from Iran's border with Azerbaijan to inaugurate a joint dam project. The helicopter, carrying Mr. Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, state media reported, crashed near the city of Varzaghan around 1 p.m. local time, in bad weather and thick fog.

Search and rescue teams scoured an area of tall mountains and dense forest through rain and fog for more than 10 hours. At one point the authorities called off the aerial search because of the weather, dispatching on foot soldiers, elite commandos of the Revolutionary Guards and 40 rescue teams to locate the crash site.

Even well into the night, state media had not yet reported on casualties, or on the condition of the president or anyone else aboard. The cause of the crash was also unknown.

"There will be no disruption in the country's operation," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in an address on state TV. "Senior officials are doing their work and I have advised them on the necessary points and all of the country's operation will carry on smoothly and orderly."

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Mr. Raisi, a conservative who violently crushed dissent, is widely viewed as a possible successor to the supreme leader. The uncertainty over his fate comes during a particularly tumultuous period for Iran.

Its long shadow 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 airstrikes 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 more than 300 drones and missiles toward the country, many of which were shot down.

Domestically, Iran is also facing widespread anger, with many residents calling for an end to clerical rule. Corruption and sanctions have gutted the economy, stoking frustrations.

In the last two years, the country has witnessed a domestic uprising, the Iranian currency plunging to a record low, water shortages intensified by climate change and the deadliest terrorist attack since the 1979 founding of the Islamic Republic.

Source: Iranian state and semiofficial news agencies

By Charlie Smart and Lauren Leatherby

If the president dies, the vice president takes over and elections must be organized within 50 days, said Ali Vaez, the Iran director of the International Crisis Group, an independent conflict prevention agency.

That, he said, would be "a major challenge for a country that is in the midst of a severe crisis of legitimacy at home and daggers drawn with Israel and the United States in the region."

Mr. Raisi is a hard-line religious cleric who came of age during the country's Islamic revolution. Under Iran's theocratic system, Mr. Raisi, as president, is the second most powerful individual in Iran's political structure after the supreme leader, Mr. Khamenei.

After becoming president in 2021, Mr. Raisi consolidated power and marginalized reformists who wanted to defuse tensions with the West. He repeatedly said that he pursued a policy of "strong diplomacy," forging closer economic and security ties with Russia and China.

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During Mr. Raisi's tenure, Iran continued to expand its regional influence, backing proxies across the Middle East that have conducted strikes against Israel and the United States, as well as advancing the country's nuclear program.

In the same period, Mr. Raisi oversaw a sweeping and deadly crackdown on domestic protesters, many of them women and young people, who had taken to the streets against the country's ruling clerics. Rights groups said hundreds of protesters were killed by the nation's security forces.

Mr. Raisi has been viewed as one of the front-runners to succeed Mr. Khamenei as supreme leader. One of his main rivals for that role is a son of Mr. Khamenei.

Despite the crash, some analysts said they did not expect a major change in Iran's agenda abroad.

The nation's supreme leader is responsible for setting all of the country's policies, analysts said, while the president's power comes from enacting those decisions.

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"At one level, the outcome does not portend a sea change in how Iran formulates and acts upon its interests abroad," said Ali Vaez, the Iran director for the International Crisis Group.

"It is the supreme leader who makes strategic decisions about foreign policy, albeit informed by the views of other key stakeholders, including the president."

Mr. Abdollahian, the foreign minister, has been heavily involved in regional diplomacy with Arab countries. In recent months, he had also met in Qatar with leaders of the militant groups backed by Iran, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas, the group that led the Oct. 7 attack against Israel.

He was also engaged in secret indirect talks with the United States, in February and in May, in Oman to discuss defusing tensions and relieving sanctions related to Iran's nuclear program.

Vivian Nereim contributed reporting.

May 20, 2024, 6:24 a.m. ET

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Hossein Amir Abdollahian was picked to be Iran's foreign minister in 2021 by the president, Ebrahim Raisi, during a volatile time for Iran's regional ties and for its relationship with the West.

Mr. Amir Abdollahian was a career diplomat and, like Mr. Raisi, a hard-liner. The two men died in a helicopter crash on Sunday in a mountainous region of northwestern Iran. Considered closely aligned with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Mr. Amir Abdollahian was also believed to have had a close relationship with Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the powerful leader of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, whom the U.S. killed in a drone strike in 2020.

Born in 1964, Mr. Amir Abdollahian held a master's degree and a Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Tehran, according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

He was fluent in Arabic and his diplomatic experience focused on Iran's relationships in the Middle East. He spent five years as deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs from 2011 to 2016 and three years as Iran's ambassador to Bahrain from 2007 to 2010.

His tenure as foreign minister was starkly different to that of his predecessor, Mohammad Javad Zarif, the moderate, American-educated diplomat who helped broker the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers including the United States. Mr. Zarif made that deal in close collaboration with John F. Kerry, who served as secretary of state under President Barack Obama, and he was later heard on a leaked audiotape discussing a rivalry with General Suleimani.

After he was confirmed as foreign minister in 2021, Mr. Amir Abdollahian emphasized that Iran's relationships with its neighbors would be a top priority, and he quickly took a tougher stance against the United States in talks about reviving the nuclear deal, which former President Donald J. Trump had abandoned.

Mr. Amir Abdollahian was also a key figure in the spillover from the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks, which prompted Israel to go to war in Gaza. Iran backs several armed groups in the Middle East, including Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. Mr. Amir Abdollahian had been vocal about the threat of a broader conflict for months before Iran's shadow war with Israel burst into the open in April, when Israel killed senior military leaders in a strike on an Iranian embassy complex in Syria and Iran fired a volley of drones and missiles at Israel in retaliation.

Mr. Amir Abdollahian repeatedly condemned the United States for backing Israel's military campaign in Gaza. In an interview with The New York Times in November, he said, "If the U.S. continues its military, political and financial support of Israel and helps manage Israel's military attacks on Palestinian civilians, then it must face its consequences."

Mr. Amir Abdollahian's deputy for political affairs, Ali Bagheri Kani, who on Monday was named "caretaker" of the Foreign Ministry, has been leading the Iranian delegations that have secretly and indirectly negotiated with the United States in Oman on at least three occasions over the past year. The talks addressed the Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea, the targeting of U.S. military personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iran's proxies, and a cease-fire in Gaza.

Farnaz Fassihi contributed reporting.

Source: Iranian state and semiofficial news agencies

By Charlie Smart and Lauren Leatherby

May 20, 2024, 5:45 a.m. ET

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Many world leaders shared condolences for Iran on Monday after the deaths of President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian in a helicopter crash on Sunday.

Here is some of the reaction:

Russia: President Vladimir V. Putin sent a condolence letter to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, calling Mr. Raisi a "wonderful person" and a "true friend of Russia." Mr. Putin said Mr. Raisi had made an invaluable personal contribution to deepening relations between the two countries. Mr. Putin has relied on Iran to provide drones for his war against Ukraine, and has strengthened ties with the Iranian government amid his standoff with the West.

India: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was "saddened and shocked" and that "India stands with Iran in this time of sorrow." The two governments have been expanding trade ties, with India recently signing an agreement to develop a strategic Iranian port, despite the threat of American sanctions.

Pakistan: The nation declared a day of mourning out of solidarity with "brotherly Iran," Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wrote on social media.

The European Union issued a statement expressing condolences and sending "its sympathies to the families of all the victims and to the Iranian citizens affected."

China: A spokesman for Beijing's Foreign Ministry said "the Chinese people have also lost a good friend." and that China's top leader, Xi Jinping, had extended condolences. He added that "China will continue to support the Iranian government and people" and was "willing to work with Iran to further deepen the China-Iran comprehensive strategic partnership."

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Iraq: The government of Iraq said it would observe a day of mourning as a sign of "solidarity with the feelings of sadness and pain." Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq fought a brutal war with Iran in the 1980s. But the majority Shiite Arab country grew close with Tehran in the wake of the U.S. invasion, and its government is seen as under the influence of Iran. Iran also counts several Iraqi Shiite militias among its regional network of proxies.

Turkey: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wished "God's mercy for my brother" Mr. Raisi, as well as for Mr. Abdollahian. "We will stand by our neighbor Iran in these difficult and distressing times, as we have done many times," Mr. Erdogan said in a statement.

Egypt: President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi asked "Allah the Almighty to envelop President Raisi and the deceased with his mercy and grant solace and comfort to their families." After years of frosty relations, Egypt and Iran had discussed renewing ties over the last year, though they had not appeared to make much progress by the time of Mr. Raisi's death.

Lebanon: The country declared a three-day period of mourning, the NNA news agency reported, with flags to fly at half-mast.

South Africa: President Cyril Ramaphosa called Mr. Raisi "a remarkable leader of a nation with whom South Africa enjoys strong bilateral relations." South Africa last year backed Iran's admission to the BRICS group of developing nations, a multilateral organization that fashions itself as a competitor to international alliances dominated by the West.

Mujib Mashal, Gulsin Harman, Vivian Yee, Paul Sonne, Erika Solomon and Matina Stevis-Gridneff contributed reporting.

May 20, 2024, 5:03 a.m. ET

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With the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, Iran's first vice president, Mohammad Mokhber, becomes acting president. Mr. Mokhber is a conservative political operative with a long history of involvement in large business conglomerates closely tied to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In a statement on Monday, Mr. Khamenei said that Mr. Mokhber must work with the heads of the legislature and judiciary to hold elections for a new president within 50 days.

Vice presidents in Iran are typically low profile, operating more as players within the government than as public figures.

"Iran's vice presidents have traditionally not been contenders to succeed their bosses," said Robin Wright, a joint fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Wilson Center in Washington. "The bigger question," she added, "is who will the regime allow to run for the office."

Mr. Mokhber is around 68 years old and became first vice president in August 2021. He is originally from Khuzestan Province in Iran's southwest, bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf. He was a deputy governor there, and during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s served as a member of the Revolutionary Guards medical corps.

One of Mr. Mokhber's relatively few high-profile appearances came when he and three other senior Iranian officials went to Moscow in October 2022 to complete a sale of Iranian drones and ballistic missiles to Russia, for use in the war in Ukraine.

Mr. Raisi chose him as vice president after Mr. Mokhber held senior positions in some of Iran's most powerful organizations, including the Mostazafan Foundation, Sina Bank and Setad, a conglomerate entirely controlled by Ayatollah Khamenei that has billions of dollars in assets and was involved — not entirely successfully — in efforts to make and distribute a Covid-19 vaccine.

All three organizations are part of an opaque network of financial entities that are tied to the Iranian state, although they are not directly state-owned. They are also connected to projects that are priorities for the supreme leader and his inner circle.

Mr. Mokhber's involvement suggests that he has been a successful behind-the-scenes player who is familiar with the financing networks that are important to the official Iranian power structure.

The Mostazafan Foundation, where Mr. Mokhber worked in the early 2000s, is officially a charity but is described by the U.S. Treasury as "a key patronage network for the supreme leader" that includes holdings in key sectors of Iran's economy, including finance, energy, construction and mining. It is the subject of sanctions by the U.S. Treasury because it is controlled by Mr. Khamenei, and the Treasury said it was created in part "to confiscate and manage property, including that originally belonging to religious minorities" in Iran, including Baha'is and Jews.

The Treasury says the foundation funnels some of its money to individuals and entities in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps that have been involved in terrorism and human rights abuses.

The Sina Bank has faced sanctions by the U.S. Treasury and the European Union for financing Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile program.

Mr. Mokhber appears to have risen to the top of Iran's political leadership in part because of the close relationship he developed with Iran's supreme leader, dating from at least 2007 when he joined the leadership of Setad. Within a few months of his appointment to Setad, Mr. Mokhber had founded the Barakat Foundation, which has a number of companies under its aegis including a major Iranian medical and pharmaceutical company.

While his relationship with the supreme leader will be important while elections are being organized, analysts say that a much larger group of high-ranking officials around Mr. Khamenei will determine how this sensitive period in Iran will be handled.

"The regime is at a tipping point — politically, economically, and even militarily," Ms. Wright said, noting Iran's large-scale aerial attack on Israel last month that was nearly entirely intercepted, which she called "a humiliating failure." Low turnout in parliamentary elections in March was also a sign of trouble for Iran's theocracy, she added.

"It is very nervous about its future and the durability of its core ideology," she said.

Leily Nikounazar contributed reporting.

May 19, 2024, 4:50 p.m. ET

The head of Iran's Red Crescent Society, Pirhossein Kolivand, told state TV that search and rescue teams have not located the site of the helicopter crash after more than 10 hours of looking, and have made no contact with anyone on board. Any rumors to the contrary were false, he said. Kolivand said rescuers were using their best guesses to set the search area and had no confirmation of the exact location of the missing helicopter.

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May 19, 2024, 4:33 p.m. ET

David E. Sanger

David E. Sanger has covered Iran's nuclear program, and its challenge to the West, for nearly 30 years.

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Even before the announcement on Monday that President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran had died in a helicopter crash, relations between Tehran and the United States had come perilously close to open conflict. What unfolds in the next few days — including what Iran declares was the cause of the crash — could well determine whether the two countries are able to grope their way out of several simultaneous crises.

Over the long term, the struggle that matters most is the one that centers on Iran's nuclear program. The program had largely been contained after the Obama administration negotiated a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015. But President Donald J. Trump denounced and abandoned the deal six years ago, and eventually Iran resumed production of nuclear fuel — enriched to a level just short of what would be needed to produce several bombs.

Exactly what role Mr. Raisi played in critical decision-making in Tehran about Iran's nuclear strategy was always a matter of dispute; the program is under the control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Iran, a power center unto itself. But American officials say that after nearly reaching an agreement with Iran through European intermediaries two years ago, efforts to negotiate have all but collapsed.

Just last week, the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, who also died in the helicopter crash, met with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, who was demanding better access to Iran's sprawling nuclear facilities.

The nuclear program, and the question of whether Iran will seek a weapon or leverage its status as a threshold power that could produce one quickly, looms over other, more regional confrontations. When Iran shot 300 missiles and drones at Israel last month, the United States coordinated with Israeli and other regional forces to take them down. But the whole exchange, which calmed after a relatively modest Israeli response, was a reminder that the country sharply expanded its missile program, and its reach, under Mr. Raisi — and is turning to techniques meant to overwhelm Israeli defenses, likely a lesson of the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Iran is arming the Houthis — Shiite militants who have taken over most of northern Yemen and attacked shipping in the Red Sea — and providing them with intelligence from at least one Iranian ship. It is providing arms and technology to Hamas and Hezbollah, efforts that also expanded under Mr. Raisi's rule. And U.S. officials warned recently that as the presidential election approaches, they expect an increase in Iranian hacking attempts.

"Iran is becoming increasingly aggressive in their efforts," Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee last week. It seeks "to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions, as we have seen them do in prior election cycles."

May 19, 2024, 3:55 p.m. ET

Supporters of the government flocked to religious shrines for group prayers, and in Tehran's Vali Asr square about 50 people held a vigil with a speaker urging national unity. But the government's critics were far from sympathetic, with many on social media highlighting the brutality of Raisi's leadership, including violent crackdowns on dissent during his time as judicial chief and president.

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May 19, 2024, 3:31 p.m. ET

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The crash of a helicopter carrying President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran could hardly have come at a more volatile time for the Islamic Republic.

Sunday's episode left the fate of Mr. Raisi — who many analysts believed was being groomed to become Iran's next supreme leader — uncertain against a backdrop of economic misery, widespread public discontent and geopolitical tensions that had pushed Israel and Iran to exchange rare direct attacks.

In the event of the president's death, the vice president takes over and must organize an election within 50 days, said Ali Vaez, the Iran director of the International Crisis Group, an independent conflict prevention agency.

That, he said, would be "a major challenge for a country that is in the midst of a severe crisis of legitimacy at home and daggers drawn with Israel and the United States in the region."

In the last two years the country has witnessed a domestic uprising, the Iranian currency plunging to a record low, water shortages intensified by climate change and the deadliest terrorist attack since the 1979 founding of the Islamic Republic.

Parliamentary elections in March showed just how serious that crisis of legitimacy had become for Iran's ruling class after millions of Iranians boycotted the vote and a far-right faction made notable gains.

"That just shows how unpopular the Islamic Republic currently is at home," Mr. Vaez said, describing "a deepening rift between the state and the society."

The economy remains in shambles because of U.S. sanctions, mismanagement and corruption. Iran's currency fell to a record low in late March, just as its people were celebrating the Persian New Year. Inflation in the country has been painfully high for years, often exceeding 30 percent.

Prospects for a return to a deal with the West to limit Iran's nuclear program, which would bring sanctions relief, appear dim.

In 2022, the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of the country's morality police ignited monthslong protests nationwide, led by women and girls who tossed off their head scarves in defiance and demanded an end to the Islamic Republic's rule. The government responded with a violent crackdown — just as it did to quell protests in 2019.

And in January, two explosions in the city of Kerman killed more than 80 people and injured more than 200. The Islamic State, a declared enemy of Iran, claimed responsibility.

Attacks between Israel and Iran this spring were the latest development pushing the country to a boiling point — and were a departure from the shadow warfare the two countries have waged for decades, raising fears of a regional conflagration pulsing outward from Gaza.

Iran backs and helps arm Hamas, the Palestinian group that led the Oct. 7 assault on Israel, which responded with a bombing campaign and invasion of the Gaza Strip, killing more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gazan health authorities. Iran also supports armed groups around the region that have declared their solidarity in a battle against Israel, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Yemen's Houthi militia.

But analysts say that Iran is eager to avoid being dragged into all-out war.

In April, Iran responded to a deadly Israeli attack on its embassy compound in Damascus, Syria, by launching a barrage of more than 300 drones and missiles directly at Israel for the first time. Few of Iran's drones and missiles found their targets — a fact that military experts and defense officials said was probably by design.

The crash also raises questions about who would become Iran's supreme leader after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is 85, Mr. Vaez said. Mr. Raisi has been seen as a possible successor.

Mr. Vaez said that Mr. Raisi has been viewed as "predictable for the system — and that's the reason he was chosen as president and was being groomed for the top job."

Farnaz Fassihi contributed reporting.

May 19, 2024, 3:15 p.m. ET

United Nations spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said that Secretary General António Guterres was closely following the news of the helicopter crash. "The secretary general is following reports of an incident with Iranian President Raisi's aircraft with concern," he said in a statement. "He hopes for the safety of the president and his entourage."

May 19, 2024, 3:03 p.m. ET

Ali Bahaador Jahromi, an Iranian government spokesman, wrote on social media late Sunday that there was no new information on what he called a "difficult and complicated situation." He said the "geographical location of the accident and weather" had delayed updates on the crash.

May 19, 2024, 2:03 p.m. ET

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A number of countries were quick to offer assistance to Iran to help with search and rescue operations after a helicopter carrying its president, Ebrahim Raisi, crashed on Sunday.

Turkey's Ministry of Defense said it had dispatched a domestically produced combat drone and a Cougar helicopter with night vision compatibility to assist the search and rescue effort, at Iran's request. A total of 32 rescuers and six vehicles were sent to aid in the search, with more on standby, according to the Turkish national emergency agency.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani of Iraq instructed his country's interior ministry and other relevant parties to offer to help with the search for the missing helicopter, according to Bassem al-Awadi, a spokesman for the Iraqi government. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian network, said it was preparing 10 search and rescue teams consisting of 50 people to assist.

The European Union activated its Copernicus satellite system to offer emergency mapping services to help Iranian officials gain better visibility of the area where the crash is believed to have occurred, according to the bloc's chief for crisis management, Janez Lenarcic. He said the E.U. had done so after a request for assistance from Iran.

The foreign ministry of Saudi Arabia — a regional rival that re-established relations with Iran last year after a seven-year split — said that the kingdom "stands beside the brotherly Iranian Islamic Republic in these difficult circumstances and was prepared to offer any assistance Iranian authorities need."

Iranian state television reported that Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, a close ally of Iran, had called and spoken to the country's first vice president, Mohammad Mokhber, and offered Russia's help "in full capacity." Mr. Mokhber told state television that Iran "appreciates Russia's help."

May 19, 2024, 1:38 p.m. ET

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has given his first public statement about the crash. "We hope that benevolent God returns our dear and honorable president and all with him to the arms of the people," he said. "Everyone must pray for the health of these public servants. The people of Iran must not be anxious or worried."

May 19, 2024, 1:38 p.m. ET

In an address carried live on state television, he said that all of the country's security and governance will be handled by other officials and there will be no disruption to border security or national security.

May 19, 2024, 1:23 p.m. ET

The European Union has activated its Copernicus satellite system to offer emergency mapping services to help Iranian officials gain better visibility of the area where the crash is believed to have occurred, according to the bloc's chief for crisis management, Janez Lenarcic. He said the E.U. had done so after a request for assistance by Iran.

May 19, 2024, 1:14 p.m. ET

Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, had met with Raisi earlier today. He wrote on X that he was "profoundly troubled" to learn about the crash "after bidding a friendly farewell" to the Iranian president. Pakistan's prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said on X that he was "waiting with great anxiety for good news."

May 19, 2024, 12:58 p.m. ET

The U.S. State Department said it was "closely following" reports of the crash but had no further comment.

May 19, 2024, 12:56 p.m. ET

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The crash of a helicopter carrying President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran happened at a delicate moment for international relations, just days after senior American and Iranian officials held talks through intermediaries to try to tamp down the threat of a wider conflict in the Middle East.

The area where the helicopter crashed was under heavy fog, and it was not immediately clear what had caused the crash, which set off an intense search and rescue operation.

For years, Iran and Israel have been locked in a shadow war with attacks by land, sea, air and in cyberspace — many of them covert or carried out by proxies throughout the Middle East. But the risks of a wider conflict have risen sharply since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, setting off the war in Gaza and a cascade of strikes and counter-strikes across the region.

The hostilities burst into the open after Israel conducted airstrikes 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 more than 300 drones and missiles toward Israel, many of which were shot down.

Iran seemed intent on proving that it would attack directly — and not simply rely on its proxies, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen or militias in Iraq. Yet the Iranian barrage also seemed designed to cause little damage, reflecting an interest in avoiding war, analysts said at the time.

Still, the possibility of a wider conflict looms, and in recent days American and Iranian officials took part in indirect talks in Oman — the first such conversations since Iran's retaliatory attack on Israel last month.

Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, said in a news conference last week that "the threat posed by Iran and its proxies to Israel, to regional stability and to American interests is clear."

May 19, 2024, 12:56 p.m. ET

Videos posted to Instagram by the Iranian Red Crescent Society showed rescue teams earlier today trekking through fog and difficult terrain in search of the crash site.

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May 19, 2024, 12:44 p.m. ET

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani of Iraq has instructed his country's interior ministry and other relevant parties to offer to help with the search for President Raisi's helicopter, according to Bassem al-Awadi, a spokesman for the Iraqi government.

May 19, 2024, 12:42 p.m. ET

State media reported that Brig. General Mohammad Bagheri, the head of the country's Armed Forces, said the army and the Revolutionary Guards had been deployed to the area of the crash.

May 19, 2024, 12:30 p.m. ET

Iran's Red Crescent said it has lost contact with three members of the search and rescue teams because of bad weather and the thick fog, state television reported.

May 19, 2024, 12:08 p.m. ET

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Ebrahim Raisi, 63, a hard-line religious cleric, was elected president of Iran in 2021. In his tenure as president, he oversaw a strategy to expand his country's regional influence — backing militant proxies across the Middle East, expediting the country's nuclear program and bringing Iran to the brink of war with Israel.

But in the same period, Iran experienced some of its largest antigovernment protests in decades and a severe economic downturn driven by international sanctions and high unemployment.

Mr. Raisi had been seen as a possible successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as supreme leader, the highest political and religious position in the Islamic republic.

Mr. Raisi's background

Mr. Raisi, born in the eastern city of Mashhad in 1960 to a devoutly religious family, was swept up in the fervor of Iran's Islamic Revolution, which toppled the country's monarchy in 1979.

As a religious scholar in Iran's theocratic government and a protégé of Ayatollah Khamenei, Mr. Raisi climbed the ranks of the judiciary, serving as a prosecutor in several cities.

After being named Iran's top judge, he was believed to have been part of a small committee that ordered the executions of thousands of political dissidents in 1988.

Accused of decades of human rights violations, Mr. Raisi had been the subject of punishing sanctions by the United States.

His presidency

During Mr. Raisi's presidency, Iran faced large antigovernment protests after the death of a young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, in police custody. The authorities responded with a brutal crackdown that included killings and executions.

Tehran has also continued its uranium-enrichment program and has gone ahead with its ballistic missile program.

A yearslong shadow war with Israel burst into the open last month after Iran launched a salvo of hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel. That attack resulted from escalating tensions between the two countries after Hamas, an Iranian-backed militant group, raided Israel on Oct. 7.

In the same period, Iran has also emerged as Russia's trusted foreign supplier of military drones. Last year Iran made a deal with Saudi Arabia and restored diplomatic relationships.

May 19, 2024, 12:05 p.m. ET

Before the crash, Raisi had attended a ceremony to open a joint dam project on Iran's northwestern border, the IRNA state news agency reported. While there, he also expressed support for the Palestinian people. "The Palestine issue is the most important issue of the Islamic world," he said, according to IRNA.

May 19, 2024, 11:49 a.m. ET

Members of Iran's Supreme National Security Committee and senior officials from the government have traveled to Tabriz, the closest major city to the site of the accident, state media reported.

May 19, 2024, 11:22 a.m. ET

State television is urging the public to pray for the safety of Raisi and his delegation, and the president's official website also posted a message requesting prayers.

May 19, 2024, 10:55 a.m. ET

The Iranian government has canceled a planned cabinet meeting and convened an emergency meeting with the country's crisis management committee, state media reported.

May 19, 2024, 10:48 a.m. ET

A helicopter carrying President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran crashed on Sunday in a remote part of the country, according to Iranian state media, prompting a massive search-and-rescue operation for the second most powerful individual in Iran's political structure. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, asked Iranians to "pray for the health" of Mr. Raisi and those who were traveling with him — including Iran's foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian. In an address carried live on state television, he said the "people of Iran must not be anxious or worried" and that there will be no disruption to the country's security or governance.

The crash came at a delicate moment for international relations — just days after senior American and Iranian officials held talks through intermediaries to try to tamp down the threat of a wider conflict in the Middle East. The U.S. State Department said it was closely following the reports about the crash, and the White House said President Biden had been briefed.

State media reported that Brig. General Mohammad Bagheri, the head of Iran's armed forces, said the army and the Revolutionary Guards had been deployed to the search area, a few miles south of the border with Azerbaijan. At least 20 search and rescue teams were also involved in the effort, according to state media, which said that inclement weather was complicating the operation.

Videos posted to Instagram by the Iranian Red Crescent Society showed rescue teams trekking through heavy fog and difficult terrain in search of the crash site.

Here's what else to know:

• The government canceled a planned cabinet meeting and instead convened an emergency meeting with the country's crisis management committee, state media reported.

• Offers for assistance poured in from countries in the region and beyond. Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani of Iraq instructed his country's interior ministry and other relevant parties to offer to help. And the European Union activated its Copernicus satellite system at the request of Iran to offer emergency mapping services, according to the bloc's chief for crisis management, Janez Lenarcic.

• Mr. Raisi had met with Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, earlier on Sunday. Mr. Aliyev wrote on X that he was "profoundly troubled" to learn about the crash "after bidding a friendly farewell" to the Iranian president.

• At the time of the crash, a delegation of ministers was traveling with Mr. Raisi in a convoy of three helicopters, state media reported, adding that the two other aircraft had reached their destinations.

• Iran's law stipulates that if the president dies, power is transferred to the first vice president and an election must be held within 50 days. The first vice president is Mohammad Mokhber, a conservative politician.

May 19, 2024, 10:47 a.m. ET

Videos airing on Iranian state television show rescue teams driving along mountain roads in very thick fog and teams walking on green hills wearing the red and white vests of emergency teams. Rescue dogs are also being dispatched, according to state media.