Debris and mangled metal can be seen wedged between trees
at a site said to be the wreckage of Iranian
President Ebrahim Raisi S helicopter on Monday. The footage
from a Turkish broadcaster showed parts of the destroyed aircraft
in a misty forested area. Officials and state media
on Monday said Raisi a hard liner seen as a
potential successor to Supreme leader Koah Ali Khamenei was killed
along with six others aboard the helicopter after it crashed
in poor weather in mountains near the Azerbaijan border.
Supreme leader Khamenei who holds ultimate power with a final
say on foreign policy. And Iran's nuclear program announced
five days of public mourning and said first Vice President
Mohammad Makar would take over as interim president in the
first cabinet meeting after the crash. The acting leader
vowed the incident would not interrupt the government's operations.
This is a serious incident for all of us.
It is sad and upsetting but in the interests of
the country and our people, we won't have any
disruption, the country will continue moving forward. Under
this leadership, everyone should continue on with their roles
despite this incident in no way, will this tragic
incident interfere with the government and the running of our
country. The crash comes at a time of growing
dissent within Iran over an array of political social and
economic crises. Iran's clerical rulers face international pressure over
Tehran's disputed nuclear program. And it's deepening military ties
with Russia during the war in Ukraine in exile in
Berlin celebrated the president's death while the head of a
Paris based Iranian opposition group told Reuters that Raissi's death
represents an enormous and serious strategic blow to the Mullah's
Supreme leader, Ali Khamenei and the entire regime,
the United Nations held a moment of silence for Raisi
Monday while leaders around the globe expressed their condolences including
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan who said earlier, it sent
rescue teams to assist while even the US offered to
help. After receiving a request from Iran. According
to state Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, I'm not going
to get into the details but we were asked by
the Iranian government for assistance. We said that we
would be willing to assist. It's something that we
would do with respect to any government in this situation
. Ultimately, uh largely for logistical reasons. We
weren't able to provide that system. The US government
offered condolences to the Iranian people though a White House
spokesperson said Raisi had blood on his hands for supporting
extremist groups in the region. An Israeli official who
requested anonymity told Reuters it was not involved in the
crash while the US said it played no role either --> .