a very good morning to you. richard louis.

breaking news out of the middle east, especial msnbc our from iran's state tv. they are reporting that iran's president, ebrahim raisi was killed in a helicopter crash on sunday. the president was traveling back from a visit to azerbaijan, when the helicopter he was in made a crash landing. for hours, rescue workers were searching for the wreckage and any survivors. have found the crash site, and there were no survivors. that weather is believed to have contributed to the crash, and it certainly slowed down a search and rescue efforts which were going on for hours. u.s. senate majority leader, chuck schumer, earlier on sunday saying intelligence authorities informed him that there is, quote, no evidence of foul play in this crash, adding that it looks like an accident. it is still being fully investigated. the death of iran's president comes during a volatile time in the region. iran and israel have exchanged attacks directly on each other, just last month, and militant groups, backed by iran have

also attacked israel, as well as ships in the red sea. that is just a part of it. the country's supreme leader, the ayatollah, still remains in control over iran after this unfortunate news. let's go to nbc chief foreign correspondent richard engel. richard, as you have been following this story, what is the right way to look at this, summarize it, and what are the reactions you are looking for from the region? >> reporter: so, this is a shocking turn of events. a helicopter crash, i am also hearing from sources that foul weather, but not foul play, are believed to be responsible. the fact that the president was traveling in this area in high fog does indicate that -- dense fog, those indicate that the

weather was most likely a factor. he was traveling from azerbaijan, three helicopter convoy. one of the helicopters crashed. we first learned about this, about 12 hours ago. that meant darkness in iran, search parties dispatching to the areas, other aircraft as well, drowns. according to this -- according to iranians, after a 12 hour search, or perhaps longer, but that is how long this has been in the public domain, we have been speculating what this meant, there is a presumption that he did not survive that helicopter crash because of word went down in dense forest, a mountainous area between iran and azerbaijan. now, there are two questions. what happens in the short-term?

how does iran find a new president, how does it find a new leadership, and then, what happens for the future of iran as the islamic theocracy -- the revolutionary theocracy that has been in place since 1979. right seat was the presumptive successor. he is one of only two names ever mentioned in iran -- talking about the succession of the supreme leader is a taboo subject but this is not a country where you have, like in the united states, on cable channels or national television, where we have almost endless speculation about what will happen and who comes up. this is not something, there, that is allowed to be discussed. it is considered to highly sensitive. but, now, this private conversation has been forced out into the open, because of the unexpected death of the president. those two questions will be, who takes over immediately, according to their

constitution, it should be the vice president. he is expected to have elections within 50 days. they might not do that because these are uncharted times, they may want to hold off longer while they try to work out what is the larger issue, which is, who is going to replace, now, the supreme leader, ayatollah ali from any. this will be something that israel is watching extraordinarily closely because we are in the middle of a hot war in the middle east, a hot war that, just last month, have the potential of breaking out into a regional war with the united states, and with iran, because of tensions. iran under raisi, my understanding through many conversations with intelligence sources, did not direct the october 7, to attack, but has certainly been supportive of it

and has certainly celebrated and been championing hamas, and it seems quite likely, according to analysts and intelligence sources that i have been talking to, that iran's external positions are not going to change. but in the immediate short term, they may have to be slightly more focused on domestic affairs. it could be a period in the very short-term in which they are not as interested in having a new oscillatory round with israel, through hezbollah, potentially, just in the short term, because they have two sort out these very significant leadership questions at home. >> richard, let's bring in nbc chief national correspondent keir simmons, in the region of this breaking story. as we were looking at some of the video before, reporting earlier on sunday, the thickness of this fog, as well as, according to iran's state

media, that many of these 40 or more rescue teams were on foot for two kilometers, trying to get to the site. what were some of the conditions on the lead up, and of course, the question that remains for many just joining us is, why, and how? >> reporter: it was clearly a very difficult effort, given the importance of those on board the helicopter, a combined effort. an effort that anyone in iran could find, to search for the helicopter, to see if there were any survivors, we can see pictures of mountainous terrain, president raisi was there to inaugurate a dam, the uranian azerbaijani border, and it was foggy. as richard says, it was absolutely foggy and we know

that. keep in mind, this is a region where conspiracy theory and finger-pointing, even more, but the picture from iranian state tv shows terrible weather. we have heard officials, prior to the announcement of the death, we have heard uranian officials talk about the weather . so now, we will wait to see until morning time, but this time, here, in the gulf, just across the water from iran. so, people will be taking this in. many people will be waking up to this news, right now, and how iran frames it, the blame that iran talks about, whether they talk about issues with the helicopter, or whether they

make other kinds of accusations, keep in mind, no matter what the reality, any of those are possible, depending upon the politics in iran, and what the supreme leader thinks is expeditious for him, and the stability of iran, that will be the same dream focus, they just lost the president on the foreign minister, the primary focus right now will be ensuring stability in their own country, and mr. concerns, and already, actually, you heard ayatollah khomeini, the supreme leader even prior to the announcement that president tracy had died, making a statement, saying, praise god that he will be found but also saying to the iranian people, don't worry, i am paraphrasing, this will not disrupt the politics of the country but he will certainly be helping so. so, i think that this -- these hours, despite the clear

evidence of what is likely to have caused this, these hours will be unpredictable, and instability will be the guiding force, frankly, in these coming hours, and that will be worrying leaders here in the gulf, where i am, all the way to washington. >> claudia lallana, international corresponded with us as well. claudia, as you are looking at the video along with everyone else is getting their eyes on the prelude to this breaking news, from iran state tv that uranian president was killed in a helicopter crash, we just got that into us, overnight, what else do we know about this, as keir simmons was just saying, the president of iran was not the only person on this helicopter. the foreign minister's, he was saying, were also on this helicopter, unfortunately.

>> reporter: that's right but there was also the foreign minister on the helicopter, as well as the governor of east azerbaijan. his name was malik, as well as the security detail for tracy, several people, but the two most important people who have died, is the president and the foreign minister, according to reran. so, that means there will be of course, a major shakeup in the government following the next few days, now, what we are likely to see in the next few hours is what we saw also overnight, when of course, this was news that was widely anticipated, there were all the indications that rice he lost his life in that crash, we are supposed to be waiting until about half an hour ago, to announce it officially, what we saw was state media, playing out prayers for tracy, asking

people to pray, they were also airing images of large groups of people, iranians praying for tracy, so what we expect the state media to do in the next few hours would be to show the outpouring, the morning but uranian people, perhaps praying for tracy, whether that is an indication of what the general feeling across iran is, given the way state media will operate, it will concentrate in particular on that. now, as richard and kier were saying, we know that it was a very bad weather condition, because we have seen those images of rescuers on foot, trying to reach the location of the crash, and you could basically make out the people, there, because it was a very small -- short visibility, just a few meters, state media said

and in the end, when they reached that site, a couple of hours ago, we got concert confirmation from state media that there was no sign of life, only an hour later, with anchors on the main state media channel in iran wearing black, a sign of clear morning, anticipating the news that we were just awaiting to hear, it will be very interesting to hear how this plays out today, of course we will see the uranian people morning, uranian people morning, we will see leaders reacting from around the world. we will also be watching to see if the other leaders will take this opportunity, perhaps, to stir emotions and blame for an agents, from, for instance, israel united states.

or whether it will stick through the most likely cause of the crash, which as far as we know for now was bad weather, or perhaps a combination of bad weather and the condition of the president of iran as well as the foreign minister. >> claudia, as well as keir simmons and richard engel, stand by for a short break. the question now is, how will the united states react to this? what will they do with the latest development? we will approach that subject when we return on breaking news of the death of iran's president, after this. esident,. febreze has a microchip to control scent release so it smells first-day fresh for 50 days. 50 days!? and its refill reminder light means i'll never miss a day of freshness. ♪

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we continue to follow breaking news out of iran. iran state tv, announcing that the country's president, ebrahim raisi killed in a helicopter crash on sunday. iranian tv confirming that the president of iran was killed in a helicopter crash. if you are just joining us on msnbc, leading up to this news, was the word or terms of a hard crash. where this helicopter was that the president had boarded, along with two other helicopters, along with -- according to state media. we now know, according to state media, that the crash site you can see on the upper left and then north of iran, that the

helicopter of iran's president has indeed crashed. no signs of life were found at the crash site. from around the state media as well, as is very clear here, that the fog according to the storyline to today, is consistent with, if this video is close to the location of the crash site. claudia lavonia is still with us. claudia, as we look at reactions coming forward from this news, not only from the region, but also from europe, as well as the united states, as in this region, we were discussing, the level of instability to begin with was of quite a notable level.

>> reporter: of course, we received the first reaction as you expect is coming from hamas as you know. iran and hamas were strongly linked. iran has supported hamas financially and also with training and speculation of how involved they could have been, or how much it could have helped hamas during the october the seventh attacks, even though iran has always to my denied any direct involvement become us has sent out a statement in the last few minutes, saying that it offers its sincere condolences to the iranian people, and to the ayatollah, and says, we are confident that the islamic republic of iran will be able to overcome this

great loss. dear iranian people have ancient institutions capable of dealing with this severe ordeal. this is an official statement from hamas, you would have expected them to be one of the first to react, now, it is about 7:20 in the morning here in rome and in the rest of continental europe. earlier of course in london, and eastern parts of europe, so we are still creating for reactions from leaders here to come in, and it would be very interesting to see what they are, but this statement from hamas is interesting, because it will say that the ancient institutions capable of dealing with this severe ordeal but it also means that, clearly, as richard was saying, earlier, the death of the president of iran doesn't really create

major issues, in the way that iran is run, simply because the main leader of iran is the supreme leader, the ayatollah khamenei, as richard was saying, the death of the president ebrahim raisi is impactful because he was the frontrunner to replace ali khamenei as supreme leader. right now, iran still has a supreme leader, that is the leader that the iranian people answer to, the iranian government answers to, the iranian president answers to. the supreme leader. so, this would only be, let's say, a method of finding a new president, with the same, perhaps, hard-line policies of raisi, so as not to create any

problems, confusions, in the way that this country is being run. but, the one immediate thing that of course we are interested in art reactions from around the world. we just got the reaction from hamas and we are waiting for reactions as leaders across europe, especially because i am here, are just waking up. richard? >> you the news of the reaction from hamas, let's go over to richard engel. richard, as we look at something that you have covered very deeply, as you look at the reaction from hamas, what does it mean, to lose one of the key operational leaders, the president of iran, to the very proxy wars that iran has engaged in, in the area but the militant groups they have supported? does it get a hiccup for the moment? >> reporter: it probably does not.

hamas is correct in one sense, saying that iran does have institutions, but they are not ancient institutions, theocracy in iran is relatively recent, is relatively new. you have the systems of kings, and shaws that ran iran for thousands of years, they were overthrown, that entire system was abolished in 1979, when you had the arrival of the iranian revolutionary system, and there have only been to supreme leaders, the first one, the ayatollah, and then his successor, ayatollah khamenei. this country is still relatively new. still a relatively new theocracy, and what this theocracy did, you remember there were protests at the end of the iran-iraq war, it was

the american hostage crisis, when the u.s. embassy was taken over by radical students, out of that environment, the iranians decided, with protest on the street, and then a quick takeover by the theocracy, that the way to go forward in iran was to have a state-controlled system, with clerics in charge, a state of theocracy, that is what -- that is the official name of the system in iran, where you have clerics, the word ayatollah literally means someone who is the shadow of god, who is the interpreter of god's will, for the people of iran. he doesn't manage the day-to- day affairs, he is not in charge of building bridges and collecting trash, but he sets the guidance of the country. all major decisions, all major appointments go through the supreme leader, and the supreme leader has held the country under a tight grip, in terms of moral policy, and this is all

related because it is a theocracy, what kind of clothing women can wear, what kind of relations they are allied to have with the outside world, how closed off iran is, all the policies are set, by the supreme leader. the current supreme leader is 85 years old, he has been, as i said, only the second supreme leader in the country, president tracy was the leading successor to take him over, so, his loss for iran is a double blow, one that creates a short- term crisis, that i think hamas is right about, they will be able to get through this, don't expect any change of policy from iran, cutting off support for iran and the palestinian people, iran has ruled through pox proxies, that is something that they did through proxies in the region, the has block, they have iran, they have a to

these, that is something that iran did before raisi and they are likely to do after him as well. but, the fundamental shift, i think people will be watching is, is this a moment when the clerics, those who dress in religious garb, who wear the turban, who are the ultimate interpreters of the very top of the system, will this shake their leadership role? will we now see iran transition from a pure theocracy, run by clerics, with the day-to-day affairs managed by the hard-line military, the revolutionary god guard, or is this an opportunity for the revolutionary guard to assert itself and take over? i've been thinking about this for the last 12 hours or so and in many ways, we could be at eight yeltsin and putin moment, where yeltsin, he was sort of at the end of his career, he was very sick, he was an alcoholic, someone who could not hold the

country together, and went to an apparatchik, went to someone from the security services, he went to someone who was an unknown factor, and we saw a transition away from soviet leadership, away from the politburo, away from big established names, moving towards those lesser known figures, apparatchiks from within the security service to take over and start to impose more of the military dictatorships, perhaps with the same trappings, the same covering of a supreme leader, but who would ultimately have the power, would be the supreme leader as it is currently, and his religious circle around him? looking to religious text for inspiration? or, will it be the military in iran, the revolutionary guard, who carry out the day-to-day powers, will we now assume a

greater leadership role, with perhaps a fig leaf religious leader? i think that is the potential flexion point that iran is at right now. doesn't continue, as it were, being guided by clerics who commune with god, who carry out through that red guard or does the red guard see this opportunity, step up, take power for itself, and change the structure of the rule, with clerics now potentially in that scenario to be more of a symbolic role. we will see. but, i think that is the frontal power struggle, that is now playing out behind the scenes. in terms of the international reaction, i think these statements are going to be very short. if you hear statements from european leaders or president biden, or others, they are not going to say, we extend our great condolences and heartfelt thoughts and prayers to this man, i think they will keep it

very short, on the lines of, we are following events closely in the loss of life is a tragedy, something like that? but you will hear the proxy groups, supported by iran, like hamas, like the houthis, like the different militias in iraq and syria, with long effusive statements, but i think that european leaders will now be meeting with their intelligence services quite closely, and trying to do a little bit of criminology, looking at this very dark, opaque system, to say, okay, what does this mean for succession, what does this mean for iran, and what does it mean for everyone else. >> india's prime minister talking about reactions, here, richard. narendra modi posting on social media, deeply saddened and shocked by the tragic demise of the president of the islamic public of aaron for his contribution to strengthening

the india iran bilateral relationship will always be remember to my heartfelt condolences to his family and the people of iran. india stands with iran in this time of sorrow. richard, as you were bringing up the example of history, in boris yeltsin, certainly, there was an operator at the time that was taking advantage of that particular context, who is now the leader of russia, vladimir putin. and as you were mentioning the possibility, of the hard right military, are there certain actors that could take advantage, if you will of the certain instability, and do have the ears of certain people who could actually make that happen? who might we watch, should that be the case? >> quite a few, and that reaction from narendra modi, much more effusive and

emotional than i would expect. i think we will hear president biden going that far, or most european leaders going that far but that is quite interesting, it is a symbol from india that they want to reach out, they want to get engaged, in the same way i think, the most effusive praise will come from vladimir putin, because iran, under tracy, has been shoring up the russian military campaign against ukraine. iran has been providing a great number of drones that russia has been using very effectively in its attacks along the front lines. sometimes you can see those attacks on cities, in ukraine, including odessa and even kyiv. in terms of other players who might emerge, and where is that power struggle going to be, there were two names that were always talked about, in private, one being

crazy, and now, no longer in consideration because of this helicopter crash, my understanding is also foul weather, no foul play, but, the other was the son of the supreme leader, mustapha kemeny. he is the son of the current supreme leader, he is someone who the supreme leader at some stage, had wanted to replace him, but, there was other opposition to that. that's why, raisi had effectively emerged as a candidate, a consensus candidate, in these closed circles, because mustapha, he doesn't give interviews, iran operates in the shadows when it comes to its leadership.

they have elections, the elections are generally not legitimate, and are a bit of electoral democratic theater, but, behind the scenes, the move to replace the supreme leader, there were always these two names, the supreme leader's current son, most of the mojtaba , and tracy. this helicopter crash eliminates racy. it takes him out of the running, but it does not mean that khamenei's son, mojtaba is the frontrunner now. it is possible, but you know, again, in the environment in iran, where you have deep suspicions, you have power plays, you have this mysterious crash in the fog in the midst of a war, it would be difficult, now, for the supreme leader and those around him to suddenly appoint the supreme

leader's son, many people would view that with even more suspicion, and say, this is some sort of an assassination hit, it is the supreme leader trying to orchestrate a situation in which he could put his son into power, so, i think this unexpected crash makes it more difficult for him to try and install his son, because it would look conspiratorial at this stage. meaning, going back to what i was saying, where we have a potential yelton and putin scenario, you reach back into the crowd of the unknowns, you reach back into the crowd of apparatchiks inside the guard. faces that are not public, faces that are not known outside of inner circles, very much like vladimir putin was at the time, someone who is seen as a steady set of hands, but who is seen who can drive the ship, and keep it moving, without emerging himself, as a

cult of personality. it didn't work in russia. that was what boris yeltsin had in mind, that he would put a steady set of hands, that the system would keep moving on, and what instead he saw was a takeover of the state security services, and i think that is possibly what we will see, in iran, as well. the takeover of the security services, vis-@-vis the clerical roles, vis-@-vis the actual theocracy that has been in power there from 1979. so, it could be quite a historic turning point, it could be a shift, but, we talked about internal shift in iran, i don't think for those interacting with iran, outside israel, the united states, others, in a, you will necessarily see great changes in policy. but, in a profound stone in the road directions stone in the river that could change the course of the water, for irani and politics.

>> by process, it is expected, now, with the breaking news of iran's president, dying in a helicopter crash, according to iran state tv, it is expected that the vice president of iran would now step in. is mohammed are. we will have that after a short break. t break. i thought i was sleeping ok... but i was waking up so tired. then i tried new zzzquil sleep nasal strips. their four—point lift design opens my nose for maximum air flow. so, i breathe better. and we both sleep better. and stay married. and i smoked while i was pregnant. this is the view i had of my baby in the nicu. my tip is: speak into the opening so your baby can hear you better.

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welcome back. as we passed the bottom of the

hour, the breaking news this day is the death of iran's president, according to iran state tv. just announcing that the country's president, ebrahim raisi was killed in a helicopter crash on sunday but the president was traveling back from a visit to the iranian border, with azerbaijan, when the helicopter he was traveling in made a crash landing. for hours, rescue workers were searching for the wreckage, and any survivors, they have found the crash site, and there were no survivors in the end, according to iran state tv. bad weather is believed to have contributed to this crash, and it certainly slowed down search and rescue efforts on the way. u.s. senate majority leader chuck schumer earlier on sunday set a talent intelligence authorities have informed him that there is, no evidence of foul play in this crash. let's go to keir simmons, he has been with us throughout our breaking news coverage, get us back up to date, in terms of what we know, as we passed the

bottom of the hour on this breaking news, this day. >> reporter: estate media, making the announcement, as you mentioned, it happened at the border of iran and azerbaijan, there are there to inaugurate a dam, the pictures show a mountainous region, and, heavy, heavy fog as rescuers attempted to get to the crash site. it took them many hours to get there, and that is the primary reason, it appears, for this crash, where so far, it seems, nobody survives, now, mr. raisi was a conservative leader, he crushed dissent, he was seen as a possible successor, to ayatollah ali khamenei, the

supreme leader of iran is now 85 and the question is who will replace the supreme leader, who has been living for a long time. know that question gets even larger, the question of how it will impact iran's foreign policy will clearly be in the minds of leaders around the world, and in washington. remember, that iran's shadow war with israel has burst out into the open, after the terror attacks on october 7th by hamas. the country supports hamas, and supported hamas through it's a fight with israel, though how much iran knew about the initial attacks by hamas is still an open question. just in the past few months, there have also been confrontation between israel and iran, as much as we have seen in recent history.

so all these things are in one context, and then just locally, if you like in iran, there is widespread anger, among many iranians, that there is corruption, sanctions by the west, that has really damaged the economy, we have seen an uprising, over the death of a young 22-year-old woman, muslim money mosso amini, crushed by the government leadership, so, this news, we talk about in history, a black swan event, this is certainly that. no matter what the cause emerges from this crash, this news will bring more instability to a region that is already reeling. >> richard engel, also still with us but we have reporting that the u.s. has begun messaging iran, tell us more about what we might know about

that, as well, as you were talking about before the break, the issue of the revolutionary guard and what that means for them, now, that they have the news that iran's president has died. >> reporter: i wouldn't say has begun, this has now been playing out for the last 12 hours or so. word first came out that there was this helicopter, in a mountain forest region, near azerbaijan. i have been talking to u.s. government sources, military sources, intelligence sources, a lot of messages have been sent. the u.s. and iran do not communicate directly. the iranians and americans do not have formal diplomatic relations, but they are able to send messages to each other, they are able to de-escalate when necessary, and it will be very important for the united states, to send iran, a

message, to say effectively, we didn't do this. we didn't shoot down that helicopter. de-escalate, we are not intending to take over iran. if you remember, several years ago, after the assassination of a senior leader in iran, in the military establishment qassem soleimani was established, who was executed under the trump administration in a drone attack in baghdad. the iranians at the time were very worried, that this was the first move in a takeover, that the americans would be coming, that president trump had ordered a military action, a coup against iran and went into full war mode, and in that crisis, the iranians shut down a commercial airline in iran, which killed hundreds of people. many of them ukrainians, and that shock event had the impact of giving a moment of pause, and potentially averting a

major war between the united states and iran, because iran was in such a frenzy, after this assassination, that they had not anticipated. so, in an effort to reassure the iranians, not that the u.s. and iran are suddenly friends, here, but in order for the u.s. to say, we didn't do this, calm down. there has been quite a bit of messaging, my understanding, not just now, but in the last few minutes, since this began. and in terms of the revolutionary guard, what was your question? >> as you were talking about before our break, that this could be an opening for the leaders of the guard. what might that mean? what are you looking for as we go forward? >> it means that we could be seeing iran shifting more towards a military dictatorship, run by the revolutionary guard, and yesterday pure theocracy

backed up by the revolutionary guard. the theocracy in place in iran has been in place since 1979. before that, you had a series of shaws, kings of kings, who rules ruled the area that is generally known as the persian empire for millennia. it is one of the oldest civilizations on the planet. that all changed in 1979, with a street razzle revolution, a student revolution, a violent revolution, led by ayatollah khomeini. return from paris and took to the streets, he was welcomed, it was a violent takeover, at times, the u.s. embassy was seized, there was a long hostage crisis, relations between iran and the united states have never recovered since then, and after the takeover, by the revolutionary guards in 79, he has had clerics

running the country, and they decided, in this move, when they toppled thousands of years of hereditary rule, that the only way forward was islam. the only solution was to have the clerics at the top guiding the country in a system called the rule of jurisprudence, the rule of islamic law, and that they would make all top decisions, in the country, in order to prevent it from going down a path of corruption and deprivation again, and they would be backed up by the revolutionary guard, and backed up by other security systems. over the decades, the security services have gotten stronger. the revolutionary guard now operate as main power players in iran. they control the military, the control military production, they control life on the

streets, in a way that the clerics, who tend to be isolated , reading and writing their religious manifestoes, and trying to come up with general policy are not connected with the day-to-day workings of the government, and we have been seeing this tension playing out behind the scenes for quite a while, in iran, and the question now is, is this a moment where the supreme leader , 85 years old, was looking to succession, and was looking to raisi, to be his replacement, is this now a moment where we see the revolutionary guard moved from being the active power force on the ground, to being one that also controls the levers of power at the very top. i think that question is something that the united states

, u.s. intelligence services, european and israeli intelligence services have been watching very closely. it wouldn't make much of a difference for russia. it wouldn't see much of a difference for hezbollah, iran and these proxies, as they are already working with the revolutionary guard. if anything, this might make those relationships even stronger because the revolutionary guard already manages what is called this axis of resistance, this army of proxies who operate outside the borders of iran. that is their portfolio. that is their power base, which they have used -- and also military production and other businesses in the country, to make themselves armed, rich, and powerful. >> what might this mean to the relationship, as we look further east, to russia and vladimir putin. what might that mean with the loss of the president of iran,

as again, we were talking earlier how iran has been supporting russia, and its efforts in ukraine. >> reporter: it's a good question. i think the overriding message here is that we don't know. it is instability. that is going to be the primary source that we will see for a while here, because as richard was laying out there, we don't know what will happen domestically in iran. there are indications, as you say, for iran's foreign policy, its policy of confronting the u.s., confronting the u.s., not directly, but through proxies, trying to have a shadow war with the u.s., a policy of that same approach toward israel, it's growing a partnership with russia, with china, what has been described by some in washington as an access axis of

evil, iran and china and russia north korea, how it will impact all of that. as richard points out, if the revolutionary guard becomes stronger as a result of all of this, and they have been lurching more and more toward the authoritarians, towards the hard-line, then you could imagine that you would see those relationships with those countries growing, and iran, if it is possible to say, becoming even more threatening? we don't know at a time like this, historians describe as a black swan event but we don't know how that might change things, because, we should not underestimate at the same time, the resistance in iran. we don't always see it, but we did see it, just a couple of years ago, with the protest over the killing of that young woman, mahsa amini. you saw it

then people rising up, it was brutally crushed under president tracy. how will this now impact that? inflation is huge in iran, many people are very dissatisfied. there are those countervailing forces in iran. will the instability that we might see, for longer than just these days, will that have an impact on the way that the people on the streets of iran think? these are things that we don't know, and that is why sometimes, historians talk about these kinds of events being event you cannot predict but which have a large impact, that is why we simply corrections is very difficult to predict, and yet, predict is exactly what intelligence officials, leaders in

washington, will be racing to do right now, as they try to get a grip on what happens next. >> we expect that the vice president of iran is now going to take on the role of interim president. who is the vice president? >> he is someone that may be 3% of iranians even know his name. the foreign minister died in the scratch as well, according to iranian state media, not a significant figure. something of a figure of ridicule inside iraq. so, you don't have a system where you have well-known figures stepping in to power. the vice president, again, seen as someone who is just keeping the machine running, and the much bigger decisions take

place in secret in iran. this is a country which has a public side, it has meetings in parliament, it has some official protest, every friday to get together, and do chance of death to america, sometimes quite lackluster event like that. the real decisions are made behind closed doors. the vice president coming in as a caretaker. most likely, expected to be a caretaker. the real question will be, who becomes the next president? again, an indication, but who becomes the next in line for the supreme leader. these are now overlapping, and they become urgent, because of this plane crash. >> chief foreign correspondent richard engel, chief international correspondent keir simmons. international correspondent claudio lovato, thank you all

three for breaking news coverage. again, the breaking news from iran state tv, iran's president killed in a helicopter crash, this, in the northern region of iran, that will do it for us this hour. we continue to follow this eakingnews story, coming out of the region, right here on msnbc. again, the death of iran's president and what that means next for the region, a region that has been very unstable, in recent times. i'm richard lui, new york. stay with us here on msnbc, our special coverage continues right after a short break. widerate to severe rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. with my psoriatic arthritis symptoms. but just ok isn't ok. and i was done settling. if you still have symptoms

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good morning to you. i am richard lui and we