Iran president Ebrahim Raisi, 63, and foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian were killed yesterday in a helicopter crash resulting from a “technical failure,” Iranian state news media reported. They were traveling from Iran’s border with Azerbaijan after inaugurating a dam project when their helicopter went down in a mountainous area near the city of Jolfa. Via the New York Times:

The Iranian authorities have sought to project a sense of order and control. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said there would be “no disruption” to the government’s work, and on Monday he said that the first vice president, Mohammad Mokhber, will assume the role of acting president and must organize elections for a new president within 50 days.

The death of Mr. Raisi, a conservative who crushed dissent and had been viewed as a possible successor to Mr. Khamenei, occurred weeks after Tehran came close to open conflict with Israel and the United States. A long shadow war with Israel burst into the open in an exchange of direct strikes last month. And looming over everything is the question of Iran’s nuclear program. Iran has produced nuclear fuel enriched to a level just short of what would be needed to produce several bombs.

Mr. Raisi, a hard-line religious cleric who came of age during the country’s Islamic revolution, was the second most powerful individual in Iran’s political structure after Mr. Khamenei. His death may pave the way for Mr. Khamenei’s son Mojtaba to assume the role of supreme leader.