(From left) Hafez al-Assad, General Zia-ul-Haq, Ebrahim Raisi, Sebastian Pinera, and Bingu wa Mutharika.

On Monday, officials and state media announced that Ebrahim Raisi, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a hardliner considered a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, died in a helicopter crash near the Azerbaijan border. The charred wreckage of the helicopter, which crashed on May 19, Sunday, was discovered early Monday morning after an overnight search conducted in blizzard conditions.

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The helicopter, a U.S.-made Bell 212, had slammed into a mountain peak, although the exact cause of the crash remains unknown. Among the victims were Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the governor of East Azerbaijan Province, and a senior imam from Tabriz city.

The loss of prominent world leaders in air crashes has often marked significant turning points in history, sending shockwaves through the political landscape and leaving nations in a state of uncertainty.

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