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Helicopter of Iran’s Late President Raisi Crashed Due to Weather, Fars Says

Presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi looks on at a polling station during presidential elections in Tehran, Iran June 18, 2021. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
Presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi looks on at a polling station during presidential elections in Tehran, Iran June 18, 2021. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
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Helicopter of Iran’s Late President Raisi Crashed Due to Weather, Fars Says

Presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi looks on at a polling station during presidential elections in Tehran, Iran June 18, 2021. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
Presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi looks on at a polling station during presidential elections in Tehran, Iran June 18, 2021. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

The helicopter crash in which Iran's late President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in May was caused by weather conditions and the aircraft's inability to handle the weight it was carrying, Iran's semi-official news agency reported on Wednesday, citing a security source informed of the final investigation results.

A preliminary report by Iran's military had said in May that no evidence of foul play or attack had been found so far during investigations into the crash.

"The investigation in the case of Raisi's helicopter crash have been completed ... there is complete certainty that what happened was an accident," the security source that was not named told Fars news agency.

Two reasons for the accident were identified: the weather conditions were not suitable and the helicopter was unable to handle the weight, leading to it crashing into a mountain, the source added, according to Fars.

The investigations indicate that the helicopter was carrying two individuals more than the capacity that security protocols dictate, the source told Fars.

Raisi, a hardliner and potential successor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, was killed in the crash in mountainous terrain near the Azerbaijan border.

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Iran's Hard-line Parliament Approves All Members of President's Cabinet, First Time Since 2001

Iranian lawmakers attend an open session of parliament during the third day of debate on the 19 proposed ministers by President Masoud Pezeshkian, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iranian lawmakers attend an open session of parliament during the third day of debate on the 19 proposed ministers by President Masoud Pezeshkian, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
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Iran's Hard-line Parliament Approves All Members of President's Cabinet, First Time Since 2001

Iranian lawmakers attend an open session of parliament during the third day of debate on the 19 proposed ministers by President Masoud Pezeshkian, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iranian lawmakers attend an open session of parliament during the third day of debate on the 19 proposed ministers by President Masoud Pezeshkian, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iran's hard-line parliament on Wednesday approved all members of reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian's Cabinet, the first time in over two decades a leader has been able to get all of his officials through the body.

The approval marks an early win for Pezeshkian, a longtime lawmaker who found himself catapulted into the presidency after a helicopter crash in May killed his hard-line predecessor.

Getting his officials approved shows Pezeshkian picked a Cabinet of consensus with names palatable to all of the power centers within Iran's theocracy, as opposed to going for controversial choices as well. Former Foreign Minister Mohamamad Javad Zarif, who campaigned for Pezeshkian in his election, later resigned as a vice president for the new leader over the Cabinet selections, The AP reported.

Underlining that point, Pezeshkian immediately posted an image online with him standing next to Iran's judiciary chief, and the country's parliament speaker, a hard-liner he once faced in the election.

“Consensus for Iran,” he wrote in the caption.

Among those in Pezeshkian's new Cabinet is Abbas Araghchi, 61, a career diplomat who will be Iran’s new foreign minister.

Araghchi was a member of the Iranian negotiating team that reached a nuclear deal with world powers in 2015 that capped Tehran’s nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions.

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the deal and imposed more sanctions on Iran. Pezeshkian said during his presidential campaign that he would try to revive the nuclear deal.

The candidate who received the most support from lawmakers was the country's new defense minister, Aziz Nasirzadeh, who received 281 votes out of 288 present lawmakers. The chamber has 290 seats.

Nasirzadeh was chief of the Iranian air force from 2018 to 2021.

Health Minister Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi received the lowest number of votes with 163.

The only female minister proposed, Housing and Road Minister Farzaneh Sadegh, a 47-year-old architect, received 231 votes. She is the first female minister in Iran in more than a decade.

Dropping proposed ministers has been a tradition in Iran’s parliament, making Pezeshkian's success that much more striking. Former reformist President Mohammad Khatami was the only president who received vote of confidence for all of his proposed ministers in both 1997 and 2001.