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| Ebrahim Raisi was elected Iran's president in 2021, having led the country's judiciary and other top offices [File: Vahid Salemi/AP Photo] |
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died after a helicopter carrying him and other officials crashed in a mountainous and forested area of the country during poor weather.
The 63-year-old, a prominent figure among conservative and hardline factions in Iranian politics, had served as president for nearly three years and appeared poised to run for re-election next year.
A former chief justice, Raisi was considered a potential successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the 85-year-old supreme leader of Iran.
Born in Mashhad in northeastern Iran, a religious center for Shia Muslims, Raisi received his religious education and training at the seminary in Qom, studying under influential scholars, including Khamenei.
Like the supreme leader, he wore a black turban, indicating that he was a sayyid—a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, a status of particular significance among Twelver Shia Muslims.
Raisi gained experience as a prosecutor in multiple jurisdictions before moving to Tehran in 1985. There, according to human rights organizations, he was part of a committee of judges that oversaw the execution of political prisoners.
He was a longtime member of the Assembly of Experts, the body responsible for selecting a replacement for the supreme leader upon his death.
In 2014, Raisi became attorney general, serving for two years before Khamenei appointed him to lead the Astan Quds Razavi, a massive charitable trust with billions of dollars in assets that manages the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia imam.
Raisi first ran for president in 2017, unsuccessfully challenging the re-election of then-President Hassan Rouhani, who represented the centrist and moderate camps.
After a brief hiatus, Raisi returned to prominence as the head of the Iranian judiciary, appointed by Khamenei in 2019. He presented himself as a defender of justice and a fighter against corruption, making numerous provincial visits to build popular support.
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He became president in 2021 amid low voter turnout and widespread disqualification of reformist and moderate candidates, securing a strong position for re-election.
Raisi often reserved his harshest rhetoric for Israel and the United States, along with their Western allies.
Since the start of the Gaza conflict in October, Raisi had made numerous speeches condemning Israel's actions as "genocide" and "massacres" against Palestinians, calling for international intervention.
He vowed revenge against Israel after its strike on Tehran’s consulate building in Syria killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including two generals.
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Raisi endorsed Iran's response, which involved launching hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel. Despite many being intercepted by a coalition of Israeli allies, Iran claimed overall success.
He was a staunch critic of the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which faltered after former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018.
Raisi championed the strategic policy of "resistance" and "resilience" that Khamenei advocated in the face of severe sanctions imposed after the nuclear deal's collapse.
A close ally of the IRGC, Raisi was also a strong supporter of the “axis of resistance” comprising political and armed groups backed by Iran across the region, including in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen.
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Additionally, he was a fervent supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose government Iran has backed in the war against the Syrian opposition, a conflict that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
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