The supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, has appointed this Monday the first vice president of the Government, Mohamed Mokhber, as interim president in charge of the executive branch and has a maximum period of 50 days to celebrate elections after the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter accidentas reported by the official IRNA agency.

Likewise, Khamenei has declared five days of national mourning after confirming this Monday the death of the president, Ebrahim Raisiand the Foreign Minister, Hosein Amir Abdolahian, in a helicopter accident, and that is why the presidential succession process has been launched.

“The support of the oppressed of the world, the servant of the people of Iran, Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi, the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, died on the way to serving the people,” the Government of Iran has announced. In the accident too Governor of East Azerbaijan diesMalik Rahmati, the leader of the Friday prayers of the city of TabrizMohammad-Ali Al-Hashem, as well as two pilots of the aircraft, a flight attendant, the head of presidential security and a guard.

The helicopter in which Raisi and his companions were traveling disappeared on Sunday when it was returning from Tabriz along with two other devices – which reached their destination without problems – and the official Iranian media then reported that it had suffered a “forced landing”, without explain the causes.

Raisi had traveled to the border with Azerbaijan to inaugurate a dam together with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliev, on the border between the two countries, a project that the leaders described as a step forward in bilateral relations after years of tensions. After the loss of contact, a large operation was launched with at least 65 rescue teams in the mountainous area of ​​the Varzeqan region, in the province of East Azerbaijan, but operations have been affected by bad weather, rain and dense fog, the Red Crescent reported.

Shortly after the announcement of Raisi’s death, The Iranian Cabinet met in an emergency, chaired by the first vice president, Mohamed Mokhber. “With the help of almighty God and the people, there will be no problems in the administration of the country,” the Cabinet said in a statement. For its part, the Council of Guardians was quick to outline the steps set out in the Constitution in the event of the death of a leader.