Iran's President "Butcher of Tehran" Killed In Heli Crash - Sends Shockwaves Across Globe

On May 20, 2024, the news broke that while flying through the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran, a helicopter carrying Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi and the country’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian crashed. Weather conditions are currently being blamed for the incident. Local authorities confirmed that there were no survivors at the crash site, with photos of bodies being carried away appearing online. Ali Bagheri Kani, a nuclear negotiator for Iran, has been stated to be acting foreign minister in the wake of Amirabdollahian’s death. It is currently unclear who will succeed President Raisi.

The timing of this incident does not bode well for Iran. An election is set for next month, and the lack of two prominent political figures in the wake of tensions with Israel may brew into something disastrous. Many Iranian refugees around the world have been celebrating the incident, as Raisi was not exactly a well liked figure. 

The hate for Raisi is not unearned: acting on the orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini, in 1988 he oversaw mass executions of between 2,800 to 5,000 political prisoners across the nation. He was also responsible for the government’s barbaric response to the Mahsa Amini protests during 2022 and 2023, in which the death of an Iranian student in police custody sparked national outrage. This is certainly a tense moment for the nation and global politics as a whole.

Sources:

YouTube. (2024b, May 20). Iranians celebrate death of president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2dYlAMX6gY 

Al Jazeera. (2024, May 20). Hossein Amirabdollahian, Iranian foreign minister, dies in crash aged 60. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/20/obituary-for-hossein-amir-abdollahian-iranian-foreign-minister 

BBC. (2024, May 20). Iran helicopter crash: What we know about how Ebrahim Raisi died. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4nnd23d505o 

Gambrell, J. (2024, May 20). “no sign of life” at crash site of helicopter carrying Iran’s president, others. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/iran-president-ebrahim-raisi-426c6f4ae2dd1f0801c73875bb696f48 

Crane, E. (2024, May 20). Iranian women celebrate death of president Ebrahim Raisi, who led brutal crackdown on rights. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2024/05/20/world-news/iranian-women-celebrate-president-ebrahim-raisis-death-by-dancing-toasting/ 

NBCUniversal News Group. (2024, May 21). Iran: Who will succeed Raisi and what it means for the region?. NBCNews.com. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/iran-raisi-killed-dead-helicopter-crash-what-next-rcna153243 

Iran’s 1988 mass executions. Human Rights Watch. (2022, June 8). https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/08/irans-1988-mass-executions 

Nimoni, F. (2023, September 16). Mahsa Amini: Protesters mark one year since death of Iranian student. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-66834156