Three years ago, Ibrahim Raisi, who was elected as the President of Iran, aged 63, is considered one day to succeed Ayatollah Khamenei, the country's supreme religious leader.

On Sunday, as the inauguration of a water project concluded in the border area of Azerbaijan, the helicopter carrying him encountered mechanical issues on the return journey.

Several senior officials, including Iran's Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, were also on board that helicopter.

Their fate remains uncertain. Rescue teams are diligently searching for the crashed helicopter.

If President Raisi were to perish in this accident, it would be a significant blow to Iran. For a long time, Iran has been navigating complex relations with Israel and the United States. Following Raisi's rise to power, he notably sought to develop relations, particularly with China and Russia, in defiance of U.S. sanctions.

Ibrahim Raisi was born in 1960 in the holy city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran. At the young age of 20, he was appointed as the Prosecutor General of Karaj, a city adjacent to Tehran.

From 1989 to 1994, Raisi served as Tehran's Prosecutor General. From 2004, he held the position of Deputy Chief of the Judiciary for a decade. In 2019, he was appointed as the head of the judiciary, becoming the country's highest-ranking religious leader under Ayatollah Khamenei.

Known for his hardline stance, Raisi was later elected as the chairman of a specialized assembly of 88 members. This assembly performs several crucial duties, including the election of the Supreme Leader and other significant religious functions.

In 2021, Ibrahim Raisi was elected as Iran's eighth president in a second round of voting.