Monday, May 18, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi died at age 63 in a fatal helicopter accident, along with Iran’s foreign minister and several others in a remote northwest region of the country. Currently, the accident is attributed to a fog that the Iranian aircrafts were ill-quiped to navigate, leading to the death of one of the Islamic Republic’s most powerful men. 

Following Raisi’s death, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber as acting president with Ali Bagheri Kani as acting foreign minister. Khamenei, who has final say on what occurs in the Shiite theocracy, thought to quickly bring order amidst all these deaths.

The deaths have occurred during a particularly tumultuous time during the recent months in the Middle East, with Arab nations and their conflicts with Israel. Iran-backed Hamas ignited the series of attacks in the Israel-Hamas war. The plane crash happened only weeks after Iran launched an unprecedented missile attack on Israel itself. 

Throughout Raisi’s presidency, relations with the west continued to deteriorate, especially after Iran aided and sent supplies to Russia for its war against Ukraine. Khamenei has said little about the recent accident, but blames the West for Iran’s old and unsafe aircrafts due to western bans and embargos against the country.