As Iranians continue to mourn the death of former President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash over the weekend, the Islamic State will now hold a presidential election on June 28.
This is coming as the United States gave a positive nod to the demise of President Ebrahim Raisi, claiming that Iranians are “probably better off” without him.
Meanwhile, the decision according to local media to hold the election for his replacement was published after a meeting between the heads of the republic’s judicial, executive, and legislative authorities.
Vice President Mohammad Mokhber has taken on the role of Acting President of Iran following Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s approval on Monday. It is unclear whether Mokhber himself will run.
Candidate registration will take place from May 30 to June 3, followed by electoral campaigns scheduled to run from June 12 to 27.
Individuals, according to the report, will be vetted by the Guardian Council, a 12-member body of clerics and jurists that administers elections.
The president of Iran is usually elected every four years by a “direct vote of the people,” indicating that an election was due in or before June 2025.
The announcement comes two days after the fatal helicopter crash, which killed the Iranian president. Raisi and several other senior officials, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, were killed when the helicopter they were travelling in went down in the mountainous East Azerbaijan province in northwest Iran. After more than ten hours of searching – hampered by fog and rain – the president and his entourage were found and confirmed dead.
The head of state was returning from the inauguration ceremony of a dam on the Iran-Azerbaijan border, having pledged to visit each of Iran’s 30 provinces at least once a year.
Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has said that condolences offered over Raisi’s death were merely a formality, adding that Iranians are “probably better off” without President Ebrahim Raisi.
The State Department had expressed its “official condolences” in a brief statement on Monday, while reaffirming Washington’s “support for the Iranian people and their struggle for human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
Blinken was grilled about the statement during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday, when Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) claimed it was “shocking” that the administration would mourn a “sworn enemy of the free world.”
“We expressed official condolences as we’ve done when countries – adversaries, enemies or not – have lost leaders,” Blinken explained. “It changes nothing about the fact that Mr. Raisi was engaged in reprehensible conduct, including repressing his own people for many years.”
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) pressed Blinken further, asking whether the top US diplomat believed “the world is better today now that Raisi is dead.”
“Given the horrible acts that he engaged in, both as a judge and as president, to the extent that he can no longer engage in them, yes, the Iranian people are probably better off,” Blinken replied.
