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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi Dies in Helicopter Crash

By External Affairs • May 19, 2024
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Ebrahim Raisi was elected Iran's president in 2021, having led the country's judiciary and other top offices

IranPresident Ebrahim Raisi has died after a helicopter carrying him and other officials crashed in a mountainous and forested area of the country in poor weather. The 63-year-old, a prominent figure representing conservative and hardline factions in Iranian politics, served as president for nearly three years and was expected to run for re-election next year. A former chief justice, Raisi was seen as a potential successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the 85-year-old supreme leader of Iran.

Raisi was born in Mashhad in northeastern Iran, a religious hub for Shia Muslims. He underwent religious education and was trained at the seminary in Qom, studying under prominent scholars, including Khamenei. Like the supreme leader, he wore a black turban, signifying that he was a sayyid—a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, a status with particular significance among Twelver Shia Muslims. Raisi gained experience as a prosecutor in multiple jurisdictions before moving to Tehran in 1985. In the capital, according to human rights organizations, he was part of a committee of judges who oversaw the executions of political prisoners.

Raisi was a longtime member of the Assembly of Experts, the body responsible for choosing a replacement for the supreme leader in the event of his death. He became attorney general in 2014 for two years, before being appointed by Khamenei to lead the Astan Quds Razavi. The colossal bonyad, or charitable trust, has billions of dollars in assets and is the custodian of the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia imam. Raisi first ran for president in 2017, unsuccessfully challenging the re-election of former President Hassan Rouhani, who represented the centrist and moderate camps.

After a short hiatus, Raisi made headlines as the new head of the Iranian judiciary system, having been appointed by Khamenei in 2019. He presented himself as a defender of justice and a fighter against corruption, traveling extensively to garner popular support. Raisi became president in 2021 amid low voter turnout and widespread disqualification of reformist and moderate candidates. He appeared to have secured a firm footing for re-election. Like other top Iranian officials, his harshest rhetoric was reserved for Israel and the United States, followed by their Western allies.

Since the start of the war on Gaza in October, Raisi made many speeches condemning “genocide” and “massacres” committed by Israel against Palestinians, calling on the international community to intervene. He promised revenge against Israel after it leveled Tehran’s consulate building in Syria, killing seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including two generals.

Iran responded by launching hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel, most of which were intercepted by a coalition of Israeli allies. Despite this, Iran claimed overall success. Raisi was hawkish on Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which has been in limbo since former U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018.

He championed the strategic policy of “resistance” and “resilience” adopted by Khamenei in response to the harshest-ever sanctions faced by Iran—imposed after the nuclear deal fell through. A close ally of the IRGC, Raisi was also a staunch backer of the “axis of resistance” comprising political and armed groups that Iran supports across the region, including in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. He was a strong supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom Iran has backed in his government’s war against the Syrian opposition, which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.