Mokhber interim Iran prez as Raisi dies in air crash

First vice president named caretaker prez; fresh elections to be held within 50 days | Hardliner Ebrahim Raisi to be buried on Thursday in Mashhad where he was born | Nuclear negotiator Ali Bahadori Jahromi appointed as caretaker foreign minister

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State TV gave no immediate cause for the crash on Sunday in Iran's East Azerbaijan province. With Raisi were Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran's East Azerbaijan province and other officials, as well as three crew members, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. Turkish authorities early Monday released what they described as drone footage showing what appeared to be a fire in the wilderness that they "suspected to be wreckage of a helicopter." The coordinates listed in the footage put the fire some 20 km south of the Azerbaijan-Iranian border on the side of a steep mountain.

Footage released by IRNA showed what it described as the crash site, across a steep valley in a green mountain range. Soldiers speaking in the local Azeri language said: "There it is, we found it." Shortly after that, state TV in an on-screen scrolling text said: "There is no sign of life from people on board." Under the Iranian constitution, Iran's vice first president takes over if the president dies, with Khamenei's assent, and a new presidential election would be called within 50 days.