THE PRESIDENT OF IRAN DIES IN A HELICOPTER CRASH

Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian died on Sunday in the crash of the helicopter in which they were traveling to the north of the country. Fog and bad weather conditions would have caused the accident. Raissi had been in office for three years.

The deceased was considered an ultra-conservative leader who retained the support of the maximum leader, Ayatollah, Khomeiny. Raissi was also an ayatollah, the highest religious status in the majority Shii community in ancient Persia.

In the West, Raissi has been attributed with having ordered the repression of opponents of the regime on several occasions, but the greatest criticism was the death in 2022 of the young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, arrested for not having respected the strict dress code maintained in the country.

Amini's death sparked a series of demonstrations by Iranian women and youth in Tehran and other cities who clashed with police. As a sign of protest, some of the protesters took to the streets without the strict veil, with their hair in the air.

Raissi was Iran's attorney general and has also been accused from that position of having contributed to the repression and death of thousands of protesters in 1988. Raissi denied having had the slightest responsibility in this tragic event.

The deceased also intervened in the diplomatic agreement with Qatar under the mediation of China. A fact that, on that occasion, was applauded in Tehran, Beijing congratulated itself on this reconciliation between the two countries.