Iranian president dies in helicopter crash, state media reports

President Ebrahim Raisi and other Iranian officials died in the Sunday helicopter crash, according to the English-language website of Iran’s IRNA news agency. State media from Iran did not immediately give a cause for the crash. Raisi was returning from the inauguration ceremony of a dam near the Iran-Azerbaijan border, the IRNA said. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei confirmed the deaths on a verified social media account.

What’s next for Iran? Vice President Mohammad Mokhber will be the new head of Iran’s executive branch, and elections must be held within 50 days, Khamenei wrote on social media. 

How are international leaders responding to the crash? Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev wrote an open letter to Khamenei expressing his shock at the news of Raisi’s death and his deepest condolences to the people of Iran, according to a translation of the letter. The U.S. State Department and the White House had not publicly commented on the crash by early Monday morning.