By Athena Papakosta

The helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raishi and the country’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amiramondolahian crashed in a remote mountainous area in northwestern Iran in the early hours of Monday. When, at first light, search and rescue teams arrived at the scene there was no sign of life around. The charred bodies were spotted by a Turkish military drone.

Iran remains mired in mourning. On Monday morning, Tehran woke up numb with the prayers of citizens covering the atmosphere.

According to the Constitution, elections in the country must be held within the next 50 days to choose Raishi’s successor, with Iran’s supreme religious leader already appointing Iran’s first vice president as interim head of government. Mohammad Mokhber. He has also declared five days of national mourning with the funeral rites for Iran’s president starting today in Tabriz.

According to a first investigation of the Turkish rescue teams, the Bell 212 helicopter carrying the president of Iran either had no transponder or it was disabled. As the Turkish Minister of Transport, Abdulkadir Uraloglu, told reporters, the fatal helicopter “did not have the signal detection system activated or did not have such a system.”

From the first moment, Tehran allegedly attributed the accident to adverse weather conditions, while, as it later became known, a memorandum called on the Iranian government to purchase two Russian helicopters for the country’s leadership amid intense concern over the inability to maintain the of its aging helicopter fleet.

An investigation team has already reached the crash site and is expected to examine the exact causes of the tragedy. It will primarily examine whether the necessary weather checks were made before the green light to operate the flight. So far there have been no charges of sabotage and the other two helicopters in the convoy landed safely.

For his part, Iran’s former foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, blamed US sanctions for making it difficult to buy and supply spare parts, stressing that the helicopter crash “will go down in the list of US crimes against the Iranian nation”.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described President Raisi as a “noble and selfless” servant of his country praising his “inner purity, humility and willingness to serve the people”.

The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, spoke of an excellent politician and a true friend of Russia while expressing his condolences. At the same time, Washington, expressing its condolences and closely following all developments, emphasized that it “affirms its support” to “the Iranian people and their struggle for human rights and fundamental freedoms” adding that President Raisi had blood on his hands of.

Analysts now turn their eyes to the day ahead as Raishi’s death comes as Iran prepares, unofficially, for a change of leadership. Within the next few years, the departure from power of the 85-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is expected, the person who has the first and last word on the direction Tehran will follow and whose regime has been facing many crises for about two years .