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price tag, go to harrys.com slash tv to claim your $5 trial i'm katie bell, lilla in washington get cnn closed captioning brought to you by meso book if you or a loved one have mesothelial not we'll send you a free book to answer questions you may have call now and we'll come to you 808 to one 4,000 this is cnn breaking news hello, i'm paul didn't and we continue to fall well, breaking news out of iran, where we've learned there are no survivors at the crash site of the helicopter carrying president ebrahim raisi. the iranian read red crescent says, there are no signs of life on the helicopter. that's according to iranian state news media. >> and we are getting our first look. >> you see it there at the site

and runs east azerbaijan province, where the air craft went down sunday afternoon. now the president and other officials, including neurons, foreign minister, had attended a ceremony for the opening of a new near the border with azerbaijan rescuers face difficult weather conditions overnight, including cold and heavy fog as they grambling to locate the crash site iranians were urged to pray for the president and those on board the aircraft here's the message earlier for morons supreme leader my dear people, whether you are sitting here or we'll hear my speech later, do not worry. >> there will be no disruption in the country's work so no disruptions says the supreme leader are paula hancocks has been following all these latest developments. its seven, 30 in the morning and tehran just after paula, and you wonder, what is obviously shocking news, but what the reaction will be as they learn. the way

in which both their president and they're foreign minister died will follow. >> i think they will be vastly conflicting reactions within iran this morning as they wake up to the news of this helicopter the crash, because we know that the president's was a fairly polarizing figure. we know he did have support from the more hardline section of society in iran but he certainly also was not popular among, for example, the youth led protests that we have seen since, since 2022. so we know that there will be a varying degree of reaction when it comes to what has happened here. so what we know at this point is the head of the iranian red crescent say that there is no sign of life at the location of the helicopter

crash, there were nine people hello, board. we know that the president ebrahim raisi, had just been at an inauguration of a dam project just close to the border with azerbaijan in the eastern azerbaijan province within iran. he had met there with the president and azerbaijan and they were in a three helicopter convoy heading back to either take r1 or where they would be able to disembark for another form of transport. it is a very inhospitable terrain as you could see from some of those images, helicopter travel really the most practical to be able to get around that area. but we also do know that weather conditions were bad at the time of this crash, just the fact that it took rescue teams so long to be able to access that location where they believed

the helicopter went down. we know that it was extremely foggy. we had heard from rescue teams about the very poor visibility in the area. in fact, rescue teams themselves were unable to put helicopters into the air to try and help the rescue process because it was simply too dangerous to be able to do so. we know also a very mountainous area, very sparsely populated and we understand that the temperatures overnight would dipping into subzero realms and rescue seems really did struggle to try and get to the area where this crash took place monday morning, people in iran will be waking up to this news. there will be shock, there will be, as i say, very varying degrees of reaction when it comes to this figure. but a very significant crash, in de, the fact the president was on board, the top diplomat, the foreign minister overrun,

was also on board that helicopter. we know that the governor of east azerbaijan also one of the region's friday prayers, imams was on bored security pilots and crews. so a very significant event happening in iran right now, paula paula gives rise rise to so many questions, right? in terms of who was onboarding included security personnel. obviously the pilot and crew, and why they made that decision. but to fly, we know the two other helicopters in that convoy actually landed safely one more are we learning about the conditions that they undertook this trip, given the fact that you just described really some bad weather, we had kernel centric latent on earlier saying that normally that would rest with the pilot. in terms of deciding whether or not to fly hi this area itself really using a helicopter for, for vips is one of the most

practical ways to transport them to to use the roads in this area would take hours. >> they are not good roads. and that in itself would be problematic when you're transporting it, a president and a foreign ministers certainly using a helicopter would be the most practical solution, but it is questionable whether or not the decision was obviously was not the right one. it appears. but whether or not that was a clear decision at the area where this helicopter took off. now, we know that it was in an area where there was a dam project. there was an inauguration, a vip events that the president, the foreign ministers, and also the president of azerbaijan were in attendance. now, we don't know whether the, the weather in that particular area was sensitively goods, so it was deemed acceptable to be able to take these, the

president and the foreign minister into the air. but we do know as soon as the first reports came out, that they had lost contact with the helicopter itself, that it was impossible for rescue teams to be able to put their own helicopters into the air to try and pinpoint exactly where this plot, this aircraft went down. so that is very telling if the rescue teams themselves are unable to put the aircraft into the air. we know that turkey, for example, gave a heat drone to be able to help with this search. and that's certainly did manage to narrow down the area. that's the rescue teams searching for, but just the fact that it took rescue teams. so long to get to that area every hour we were getting updates of the difficulties that they were encountering. the fact that the visibility was dreadful, you can see from

the images and the footage of the rescue teams, just how little visibility there is. and that is on the ground as people are trying to walk, you can imagine what it would have been like in the air. so there will be some serious questions are asked as to why this helicopter was in the air in the first place, why the president and the foreign minister were both on the same helicopter, for example, there were three helicopters in this convoy so certainly these questions that i'm sure will be asked internally over the hours and days to come and paula, as you were speaking, we're seeing some of those conditions on the ground extraordinary that they actually sent hundreds perhaps thousands of people hold on foot. >> because as you say, they could not take to the air to really conduct that search. paula hancocks for us as you continue to track reaction there from the middle east his depreciated are ivan watson is also chat tracking reaction and joins us now from hong kong and again, i've, and i'd imagine the shock really starting to

register mr. around the world sure. >> i mean, look, the announcement that no survivors were found at the iranian presence crash site today. that's really only been in the last hour. so it will take a little bit longer to hear more reaction and an official announcement coming out of the iranian government as well. but i think it's very important to see the commentary that's come out from neighbors and other governments running up after the news of the crash came out because many people know about the mortality rates when it comes to helicopter crashes. first and foremost, i want to highlight the president of azerbaijan, ilhan elif, because he was in fact meeting face-to-face with the iranian president ebrahim, right? he raisi on sunday morning. they were side-by-side, inaugurated the launch of a dam project on the border of the two countries and after news of the crash

came out, olive put out a statement on x saying that after bidding a friendly farewell to the president of the islamic republic of iran we are profoundly troubled by news of a helicopter carrying the top delegation crash landing in iran. a. he said our prayers to allow mighty are with president raisi and the delegation and that azerbaijan was offering to help out as well and other offers than poured in the iranian ambassador to moscow said that he had basically an emergency meeting with russian president vladimir putin at 10:00 moscow time, 10:00 p.m. on sunday. that i think highlights the importance that the russian president puts in his friendly relations. since with iran, which has been supplying russia with shahid killer drones that have been used against, ukraine on the frontlines of that war. and russia was rushing planes and

rescuers to help in the now the rescue effort that is now a basically a salvage effort at turkey, a neighbor to iran, provided a drone that was operating in those turbulent skies that my colleague paula hancocks was just talking about since iran couldn't get helicopters up in that terrible whether we've also had messages of support and concern come in from china, for example. and pakistan, which is interesting because in january of this year iran launched killer attacks, deadly attacks across the border into pakistan which attracted just condemnation from pakistan between those two neighbors. it gives you a sense of how prickly the relations can be in this part of the world. >> we've heard that president biden has been informed about this, but we're not hearing any official reaction from the white house yet. it will be

interesting to see what iran sworn enemy israel, how it will respond to this news because of course it was just last month that iran and israel were quite literally trading blows in a sharp escalation of the year's shadow war or between these two countries. >> finally, we had a message from hamas long supported by iran, expressing its concern and sympathy and solidarity with iran at this time. so it just highlights the complicated relations and the pattern of a that iran enjoys in the turbulent middle east and further abroad. >> yeah, and in terms of the reaction even from countries like pakistan as one of our analysts put it as a sense of decency among muslim countries that they will continue to express that those kinds of condolences ivan stayed with me for a minute as we have our first look here at some new pictures, just come in to cnn

at the site as you can see there, obviously day break, it is morning there and you can see this is the site of the crash. it looks like a staging area right now or they've been able to get as you can see, even ambulances there and other vehicles to try and do their first investment the games of the site. and obviously try and recover the bodies. those are our first pictures. in fact, those are live pictures there from bees iran, which just still quite a distance away from where this crash occurred, but they are setting up that staging area to begin those recovery operations. you made such good points there in terms of the reaction, i do want to ask you what will be a very complicated reaction inside of iran, right? because you we'll have certainly hardliners. those who are very religious as well, who would have backed president and auc. and obviously the supreme leader. but again those who felt that he was an unsparing repressive

president of iran that is responsible for, in fact, condemning many to death very polarized we heard the iranian government, the supreme leader of iran, no less coming to eat, calling for prayers, for raisi and his entourage. >> and we saw on iranian state media scenes of people quite literally praying for him. and now that will transition to prayers of mourning. after all, we're seeing that some of the anchors on iranian state television are wearing black right now. and i think a sign of what's to come in, iran as we're likely to move into a period of official morning on the other side of the political spectrum in iran, there are those who see ebrahim raisi as a villain and we are seeing signs on social media. we're seeing videos of people whose families suffered under the

crackdown, particularly over the last two years in iran quite literally celebrating in one video, to women whose mother died in the crackdown, dancing to a turkish pop song called helicopter. further abroad, we have members of the diaspora who are opponents of the islamic republic of iran, of the regime there since in place, since 1979, also celebrating this moment. and it underscores the internal divisions within this country where you've had over the past 20 years recurring up risings and protest movements that the authorities have crushed using at times deadly force. ebrahim raisi himself was elected in 2021. it was historically since the foundation of the islamic republic of iran, the lowest voter turnout in any presidential so election. i believe it was in the 40th percentile. and the

parliamentary elections have just a few months ago also had a low voter turnout in decades past, paula, i think you and i have reported on the power struggle between reformist and conservative camps. in iran. experts will argue that the reformist side of the body politic and iran has effectively been crushed for years now. and now if there is any power struggle, it's within different shades different shades of black and gray within the hard line and conservative camp. >> so a big part of iranian political society is basically blocked out of politics. and that leaves factions, again, within the hard line and conservative side of society two, then kind of duke it out over who might become a candidate and the winner of

presidential elections, which according to the iranian constitution, are to take place. some 50 days after the death of the elected president. >> it is quite a fast timeline, especially given this country will be in mourning for several days. ivan watson, thanks so much. you will continue to bring us news as we get it in terms of reaction and stay with us. so we will have much more on our break i didn't news here in a moment when the genes came out, i thought, oh my god when bob has a friend expects blind loyalty, turns out, when you have a whole lot of money, people are willing to do things for you what do you do when your best friend kills your other best friend robby surprises and surprises sail

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back to our breaking news story. >> this our ron's president, ebrahim raisi, is believed to be dead after no, sir. survivors were found at the crash site of the helicopter carrying him. that's according to iranian state media, the aircraft came down early saturday, sunday afternoon as it was flying over iran, east azerbaijan province. it was carrying iranian president ebrahim raisi and eight other people, including the country's foreign minister rainy and constitution states that in the case of the president's death, the first vice president shall assume has powers with the approval of the supreme leader. and in fact, we have already heard from the supreme leader, this was before we knew that the helicopter had crashed and at the time he was promising that there would be no disruption. you're looking at now are live pictures of the staging area not far from the crash site into bridge these iran, where they are trying to obviously mount or recovery operation. now and no doubt very extensive investigation to

determine how this happened i'm joined now by cnn military analysts and retired us air force colonel cedric, a latent and i'm going to get to the military chain of command here and how we feel that happened. but i want to deal strictly now the aviation when you see what we've seen in terms of the crash site, now, we do have a still photo of that. the terrain, the weather conditions what could have been at play here are key factors. >> paula and i think one of the key things is of course the weather, as you mentioned, that would be one aspect of this. >> so you have fog, you have rain, you have cold temperatures, and you have the terrain that you're dealing with here. so i with temperatures below 50 degrees fahrenheit, ten degrees celsius you find that there's the possibility at higher altitudes of icing of the rotor the blades. there's a possibility of i even potentially engine failure. so there are a lot of

different things that could in fact have been part of this plus the other thing, the other factor in this would be maintenance, whether or not the helicopter was properly maintained, a you would think as a part of a presidential fleet that helicopter would receive the highest attention when it comes to the maintenance and protocols associated with it but i even with some of the best oversight, there are sometimes things that have and of course, if there are no spare parts for the helicopter, then you get into a situation where there's a real possibility that they were using workarounds for missing parts where they were trying to fabricate missing parts that they couldn't obtain on the international markets. >> so those are the kinds of things that would tensional have contributed to a failure in the engine or a failure? year of the aircraft itself. >> then you have the factor of

the two this terrain is very forbidding terrain here. >> i wouldn't want some was talking about this earlier when he was mentioning that you've been through this area. it is the cavernous of place altitude on average of about 6,000 feet 2,400 or so meters. so that is pretty high average altitude to deal with. and then you have to have the understanding of what the terrain actually is. so if you're flying over something like this, you have to actually understand what the contours of the earth actually are sometimes a navigation aids aren't as good as they need to be. sometimes they fail and if that is the case, then that could also have contribute to this crash. there were a lot of aspects of this but i think the key things are maintenance issues, the weather, i and the

fact that iran has been living under sanctions and they're using variable equipment to even to transport it. their highest level leaders then we get to the military chain of command. i know you told us earlier than whether or not to fly would have ultimately rest with the pilot in this situation to assess the weather conditions. and if it was safe. but it seems odd to me. you had mentioned the airframe on the sin could be nearly a half-century old. you had the foreign minister and the president in the same helicopter, even though there were apparently three that were traveling together what you know, as someone who's, obviously you this military chain of command, we know that there was a security official onboard as well. does this strike you as odd but i think there's always the possibility of rank intimidating people who are supposed just to actually be the ones that are in charge. >> so there is certainly the possibility that the rank of the president or a overbearing security official or a protocol

official. let's said, you must get the president. he at a certain time may have contributed to this. so in many ways, the pilot may have felt against this is better judgment to take to take the mission on and the president forward because that's what was wanted and that's what was demanded of him. so there's there's definitely a possibility matairie hierarchy and it's certainly in society like your lawns. there was a lot of obedience given to that hierarchy. so the pilot may be in charge nominally in the us, that advice if the pilot would have certainly been i've been a key factor in the decision to go or not to go, but there's always the chance that ran could have had a factor in this and it could have potentially overwhelmed good judgment and made it a situation where against his better judgment, the pilot decided to fly anyways. so that's a

possibility and apollo i handcart pointed out something that is actually quite true. the weather at the point of origin may have been, okay, they've been quite good and with changing weather, which is a very common occurrence in mountainous regions like this. i, the original assessment may actually i've been falsely so it may have been perfectly fine to take off from the area on the azerbaijan border. but it may not have been fine. if you're flying at low altitude to continue the mission. and by the time that you're in the middle of something like that, it may be too late to get out of it. >> it is true because the weather at that hour was getting progressively worse as well from what we know, kernel cedric leighton for us, thanks so much. appreciate it we'll be right back with more on our breaking news story in a moment.

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foreign minister has die, have died. i'm joined now by trita parsi he is author of losing an enemy obama or-awn and the triumph of diplomacy. and executive vice president at the quincy institute for responsible statecraft so much to get to here i do though, just right off the bat, want to get your reaction for the president of iran dying in that helicopter crash obviously, this is going to be something that throws a major wrench into the wheels the iranian government and how it has planned to handle the next few years mindful of the fact that the supreme leader is nearing the end of his life. >> and one of the biggest challenges they will face is this crisis. and this accession to the next supreme leader and right, was one of the contenders for that position. some argue that he had been groomed to take over that position and he is no longer there. so there will be both that crisis as well as the

crisis of holding elections within the next 50 days at, in a country that is deeply divided, the deeply on ocular regime. and a population that increasingly have stopped casting votes because they have lost faith in the belief that they can be changed through the ballot box. >> yeah. and ron has stuck to that, what they call a democratic process. because it lends their regime legitimacy and without any kind of a turn out there, they're going to wonder exactly how to retain any sense of legitimacy among iranians who've already lost confidence in the regime today, i want to ask you though, it is very complicated here, to really try and figure out what the reaction within iran will be. >> du, you suspect that a portion of the population agreed with president iec understood that for them, he was the keeper of a very conservative religious, hard line legacy that they wanted to keep him play this post revolution there certainly is a

portion of the population that supports the regime. and raisi, i believe that it is portion of the population over the course of the last ten or so years but there is also, of course, a segment of the population that perhaps more than anything else has a stake in some degree of stability and status quo. and clearly a portion particularly amongst young people that have a completely lost faith in the regimes ability to deliver for the population you will see those who will be morning and there will be others who will perhaps be somewhat pleased. >> but i think it is important to note, however, that this is not a president that was particularly impactful or much of a driving force behind any particular policy. >> and as a result, it is not a critical person from within the regime that has passed even though he potentially would have been supreme leader. it would be very different, for

instance had the previous president or rohini died in a helicopter crash in the midst of the nuclear negotiations that would have been a significant blow to those negotiations precisely because he was a driving force of that process. raisi has not really play that role. he has more than anything else, just been a caretaker of keeping a degree of stability until the succession to the next supreme leader arrives and yet, we had the supreme leader. >> we haven't heard from since they confirmed the deaths. we do expect though, that he will likely speak in the coming hours. he says there will be no disruption what do you think will happen in terms of the power? vacuum now, that inevitably is there, even though the supreme leader is obviously still in charge, what do you think the impact of that will be i don't think that impact will be very significant. >> i think rather what may happen is that if this ignites a much more vicious fight for

who should take over the supreme leadership position that so far they've tried to keep a very a process that is mostly behind the scenes and not let a lot of leak out, but if this ignites something that ends up becoming much more open and vicious, it could have one significant implication for the united states if the regime ends up in some sort of a grid lock and billeted in crisis its ability to rein in some of its allies, syria and the rocky militias that the iranians have supported arm and trained who they have used to project power in the region. but who also have their own interests. and part of their inches is actually they tend to be more aggressive towards the united states. there's currently is a truce and uneasy truce in which they have stopped her attacks with us troops partly because of pressure from iran. but if that pressure cannot be sustained, we may end up seeing a situation which these attacks against you as true may restart and that would obviously be a

very negative development for the united states and the bible restriction entry to what do you think will be the reaction among those who have suffered from this repressive regime they remain inside iran or dissidents now outside are wrong there certainly will be people who, because they have suffered tremendously this regime will find a degree of satisfaction, perhaps joy in this. >> but at the end of the day, i think most of them also recognized this was not the most critical person within the region jim and his passing is not going to create is not likely to create a very significant crisis for the regime survival parsley, we'll leave it there for now as we continue to follow this breaking news, really appreciate it and joining me now on the phone is cnn's senior international correspondent, fred pleitgen. you, will have seen his reports. >> he here just a few weeks ago. in fact, from iran, but over dozens of times, fred really glad to have you on the line. i want to get your

reaction first and fourth foremost yeah. >> i mean, i think that obviously this is a huge shock for those in power and the islamic republic. and i think one of the things that. we've. seen over the past. i would say like six to 15, 16 hours after the helicopter went missing was serious efforts, especially by the supreme leader of iran. we of course is of advanced age and has had some frail health in the past to really try and make sure that there is stability right now in that system of the islamic republic of iran. it, but it was quite significant that he himself immediately chaired a meeting of the national security council and after that, actually was seen in vision the on state tv assuring people that there would be a continuation of the government's affairs. so i think right now for those in power project acting stability in the atlantic republic, which actually goes to what we're both of your guests were saying as well. that is of course right now tantamount and very

important. i would also say that the ebrahim raisi, i was actually at his presidential election when he was first elected. and it's some of his first speeches after he was elected, i would tend to agree that as far as presidents in iran goal, he wasn't or didn't have the time to be as influential, for instance, as hassan rouhani, those of course will break the different times also between the west and iran i would however, say that the foreign minister, hossein amir-abdollahian was certainly a very impactful foreign minister for iran. and i don't think that that can be underestimated. i followed his to his work and what he did since basically 2015 since he was the deputy foreign minister in for middle eastern affairs, spending a lot of time in syria. but also if you look at recently, when you add that flare up between israel and iran it was really, i'll say in a beer, have dollar yan who toward the region, we sort of caught, tried to calm things down not between israel and iran, but certainly as far as

the june, there was concerned. so i think that he was definitely someone who set the foreign policy for iran also a big influence on the relations of iran and the united states. and so therefore, i do think that there is going to be a void right now in the yeah iranian foreign ministry, as far as iranian foreign policy is concerned, as of course right now, they will be looking to see what the future holds as far as i know once all the ceremonies have taken place, the burials and all of that, they will have to call for presidential elections in about 50 days. so that's certainly is going to be a key time for the islamic republic like overrun to see where it goes next politically presumably where it has been going over the past three, four years. but certainly who's going to lead all of that? who's gonna be part of that government? and especially as far as foreign policy is concerned, could be very, very interesting to follow to see where they go next, paula. >> yeah. and you mentioned such a good but we haven't talking about the president bola, as you said, the foreign minister, he, there was quite a lot of

nuance to the way he conducted foreign policy for iran. in fact axios reported that last week the us and iran in separate rooms with oman as a mediator, we're talking about how to train de-escalate things in the region. so i want to get your take on if you think anything will change given that there is a power vacuum there as well, these are crucial times, obviously throughout the entire region and pivotal, perhaps even at this sauer is what israel's reaction will beat all of this well, i think you're absolutely right and i think that that's calling the way that he led his office and he conducted his affairs. >> new once i think is very important, i think that hossein amir-abdollahian was a much, much more of a hard liner and within the spheres of the hardliners in iran that for instance, java, the reef was czar, the repossessed also quite close to the supreme leader but as far as the apparatus of the revolutionary guard, the military forces and also a lot of the hard-line clergy is concerned i would say that hossein amir-abdollahian was definitely much more

ingrained into all of that. and if you look at some of the foreign policies that he conducted does this was quite interesting to see when ebrahim raisi was elected president, said we had actually spoken to hossein amir-abdollahian just shortly before that. and all the things he had told us team, the foreign policies on iran. so there is a very hard line towards obviously the united states, but at the same time of course, they did have those efforts to try and revive the iran nuclear agreement with soap so far i've not really born any fruit and are sort of on standstill right now. but they certainly did attempt to do that. but then also especially in that time when you look at after that that flare up now with the israelis where it really seemed as though for a while, israel and iran were on the brink of a much more wider, possibly for the region catastrophic war he was quite instrumental in trying to calm all of that down. he traveled the region that he informed, for instance, a lot of iran not just allies, allow of countries in the region speaking of iran's

response to the bombing of that embassy compound. and so certainly he is someone who definitely took the foreign ministry by the rain and it it's gonna be interesting to see what they do next as far as foreign policy is concerned, because on the one that of course there is a direction of the foreign ministry, but at the same time of course, it also take someone very strong in charge of the foreign ministry to form those policies to travel the region. and of course also to have that cloud among other regional leaders as well, paula. >> yeah, it's certainly from what you're describing, you certainly had a lot of latitude in foreign policy and wielded that power as he could with the regime. >> a friend i want to ask you before you go i don't say a friday went by and iran that you didn't go to friday prayers president i uci was really closely tied to certainly the religious life in iran in the fact that the supreme leader is the supreme leader in doubt obviously by bye. >> in this muslim country, and those devote iranian that

follow him. >> what do you think the reaction will be in those religious devotees well, i think that among the religious devotees and the sort of rule religious conservatives that we all saw. >> very often, of course, at friday prayers in tehran, but actually also mentioned managed to go to friday prayers in mug shot when brain raisi was on hand. this was shortly after his election, and that's certainly is his center of power. that's where he's from. these affiliated with a religious asylum it in mug shot in an eastern around which of course is extremely powerful in iran as well. so there's certainly, and you saw yesterday also that once the helicopter went missing think that people there were calling for folks to come out and pray. so i definitely think that it would be obviously a huge shock and blow to them at the same time, we can already see this is obviously something that always happens when high-profile officials are militaries get killed or die. and around that he's already been called a martyr. so the whole concept of the martyrdom

will certainly endear him to a lot of the very conservative religious people very pious religious people who had been his backers really, that really has been the backbone of the support for ebrahim raisi, which i think some of the guests were saying of course right now, the islamic republic of iran i was going through subdivisions, going through some difficult political times, but that was definitely the sort of bedrock of support, not just for the religious conservatives, but for ebrahim raisi swell and of course there was talk of him being in the running of possibly becoming the next supreme leader, even though it was really unclear where that stood at the current time. but yeah, i mean, it definitely will be a shock to them at the same time, of course there is always a succession that goes on and i think they will be prepared for this. they will find a new president and and certainly most probably someone who as far as the convictions are current as concerned, will

probably be fairly close to ebrahim raisi, who himself was for devoted to domestic policy issues. i would say then foreign policy didn't really see him that much on the foreign policy beat. he recently visited vitamin putin he obviously the on the day that he was killed, nine helicopter crash, she met with the president of azerbaijan. but aside from that, the foreign policy really was up to us saying on of dollar here but as far as domestic policy is concerned, of course, he was very much a big figure, but i would also agree that in the time that he was in office, didn't really have time for any sort of reforms, nor was the inclined to those reforms. so i do think that's fairly quickly. they will be able to find a new president and hold new elections fall. >> fred pleitgen for us, it really thank you for jumping on the phone with us and we will continue to listen to your reporting in the coming hours. so for plug-in for us, appreciate it, and stay with us. we'll be right back with more heartbreaking news coming when the genes came out, i thought, oh my god hi, i'm bob

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buddy maths and get one free for all late 24, 95 each or russia were trying to spy on us. >> we were spying on them. >> this is a secret war, secrets and spi next premier sunday, june 2, beta1 on cnn i'm paula newton are breaking news out of iran. >> iranian news agencies have confirmed the deaths of iranian president ebrahim raisi and the country's foreign minister. their helicopter carrying nine people in total, went down on sunday in ron's east azerbaijan province after the president and other officials attended a ceremony for the opening of a new near the border with azerbaijan. now rescuers had faced difficult weather conditions overnight,

including hold weather, heavy fog as they scrambled to locate the crash site. i want to bring in our senior white house reporter now kevin lip tech, who's been following all of these developments as well. well, as the reaction of the biden administration. >> kevin good to have you with us. >> you have been following the president who is now traveling in michigan. i mean, look, we just discussed earlier that any kind of reaction from the biden administration would be delicate, but but so too will be israel's reaction and any influence the united states may have on that yeah, and i think that's part of the reason why the white house and why the biden administration writ large have been so careful today about what they're saying and what they're not saying as details emerge from the ground and certainly everything that president biden and his team say going forward will be parsed not only in iran, but certainly around the world as they look for signs of how the us iran relationship contention will go forward. >> now that this has happened, and i think when you talk to

officials inside the white house, there is not a great hope that this will change anything, certainly in the upper echelons of the regime in tehran, they don't expect sort of a softening of the hard-line positions that we've seen adopted over the last several years. but i think what they're looking for mostly is to contain any of the volatility that could be contained in what's going on now now. and certainly when it comes to israel, president biden's overarching goal amid this crisis has been to prevent this conflict from spreading into a wider regional war and to prevent the united states from being dragged closer into conflict with iran. and you saw that just in the last several months in this for tat back i can forth between israel and iran, you saw the united states come to israel's defense. you saw around fire drones and missiles towards israel for the first time that had been a point of real fear inside the

white house that that could sort of spiral out of control. and they do feel like they were able to successfully contained payne that and part of that is because there have been these quiet indirect back channel conversations between washington and tehran, sort of sending the message that they do not want this conflict to escalate any further now that there is sort of a vacuum at the very top of the iranian regime, what the white house want to do is try and ascertain very, very quickly what raisi is. replacements intentions are and certainly the supreme leader has the ultimate say in the us sort of feels like they know where he stands. but when you talk about those underneath him and the foreign minister in particular, they will want to get a better read of how those new people in those positions will adopt their positions going forward. and i think that's going to be an important thing for president biden to do now, particularly

at a very fragile moment in the gaza war, as the us tries to secure the ceasefire and hostage deal, as the us tries to broker this broader regional agreement with saudi arabia, the goal of which had been trying to provide a greater bulwark against iran. all of that is the context in the back drop with which the president, i think it sort of digesting the snooze now and yet in their efforts in the last few weeks to try and de-escalate the situation and work through those back channels. >> even most recently as last week, is that opportunity now perhaps lost. i mean, obviously in iran for at least a couple of months, if not longer, they are going to be scrambling really two re-establish political power. >> there at what point is they're just not going to be that latitude which could also in fact impact those militias in those proxies that are backed by iran yeah, i think

probably the hope is that it's not entirely lost, that it could be delayed somewhat. and i think that that is probably the goal of the biden administration now is to try and keep whatever relations and whatever back-channels they had with the iranian government on the same track that they were on before. but at the end of the day, some of these back-channels are pretty flimsy. the doesn't have diplomatic relations with iran. they don't have the direct conversations with, for example, over iran's nuclear program that had once been a hallmark of the relationship. and so i think the goal now is to try and keep things stable, to try and prevent the volatility from creating a situation where president biden can't control the region and when it comes to the proxies that had been something that president biden has been trying to do for months and months and months is to try and contain the fallout from those proxy groups, including the houthis in yemen, and also groups in iraq and lebanon who have

taking shots at american troops in the region. the us has retaliated against those proxies. but again, the overarching mission that president biden has had is to prevent this from becoming a direct us around conflicts that's something he very much is seeking to avoid. >> and but they will continue obviously, on those efforts, kevin, lived out for us. thanks so much for jumping on. really appreciate it. i'm paula newton. i will be back was more of our breaking news coverage right after a quick break riyadh says new album is breaking records partisans of country music saying his is or guiding country this is not like, oh black people are getting into noun like we've been in country music gets to say what country is what the south is about. comey country

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