Breaking news out of the middle east, a special msnbc our from Iranian State tv, they are reporting that irans 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. Bad weather is believed to have contributed to this crash, and it certainly slowed down a Search And Rescue efforts, 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. Now, the death of irans president , comes during a volatile time in the region. Iran and israel have exchanged attacks directly on each other just last month. Militant groups, backed by iran, have also attacked israel, as well as western ships in the red sea. That is just part of it. The countrys Supreme Leader, the ayatollah, remains in control over iran after this unfortunate news. Lets go to chief Foreign Correspondent richard engel, richard, as you have been following this story, what is the right way to look at this, to summarize it, and what are the reactions that you are looking for, from the region . Reporter so, this was a shocking turn of events, Helicopter Crash. I am mostly hearing from sources, that foul weather, no 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 does indicate that the weather was most likely a factor which is presumed to have been the factor. He was traveling from azerbaijan. A three helicopter convoy. One of the helicopters crashed. We first learned about this, about 12 hours ago, and that meant the period of darkness in iran with search parties, mountaineers, all dispatched to the areas, other aircraft as well. Drones, but according to this according to the iranians, after 12 hours of searching, perhaps longer, but that is how long this has been in the public domain, we have been speculating what this meant, there was a presumption that he did not survive that Helicopter Crash, because the word went down in dense forest, the 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 any leadership . And then, what happens for the future of iran, and the Islamic Revolutionary theocracy that has been in place since 1979 . Because race he was the perceptive successor, only one of two names ever mentioned in iran, and by the way, talking about the succession of the Supreme Leader is a taboo subject. This is not a country where you have, like in the United States, On Cable Channels or national television, we have an almost endless speculation about what will happen in two comes up. This is not something that is allowed to discuss, 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, he might not do that, because these are uncharted times, they might want to hold off a little bit longer, while they try to work out what is the larger issue, which is, who is going to replace, now, the Supreme Leader ayatollah khamenei, this is something that something that the United States and israel will be watching extraordinarily closely because we are in the middle of a hot war in the middle east, a hot war that just last month had the potential of breaking out into a regional war with the United States, and with iran, because of the tensions. Iran under racy, my understanding, through many conversations with intelligence sources did not direct the hamas october 7th attack, but has certainly been supportive of it, certainly has celebrated it, certainly has been championing hamas, and it seems quite likely, according to analyst and intelligence sources that i have been talking to, that irans external positions are not going to change, but in the immediate short term, they may have to be slightly more focused on domestic affairs, and it could be period in the short term in which they are not as interested in having a new escalator around with israel , a new as glittery around with israel through hezbollah potentially, just in the short term, because they have to short out these very significant Leadership Questions at home. Whispering in nbc chief International Correspondent keir simmons, who is in the region of this very Breaking News story. As we are looking at some of the video before, which we recorded earlier on sunday, the thickness of this fog, as well as according to irans state media, that many of these 40 or more rescue teams were on foot for two kilometers, trying to get to the site, what are some of the conditions on the lead up and of course, the question that remains for many who are just joining us is, why, and how . Reporter it was clearly a very difficult effort, given the importance of those on board, a combined effort, and effort that pulled in anyone iran could find, friendly, to search for the helicopter, and see if there were any survivors. You can see on the pictures, it is madness terrain, president tracy was there to inaugurate a. It is over the iranian azerbaijani border, and it was foggy. As richard says, it was absolutely foggy and we know that. Keep in mind, this is a region i am in, where conspirators are using and fingerpointing is the norm. But pictures show this terrible weather and we have heard iranian officials announcing the death of the president tracy, we have heard iranian officials talk about the weather, so now, we will wait to see if it is now, you know, morning time, breakfast 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 way that iran talks about whether it is the weather, or whether they talk about issues with the helicopter, or whether they make other kinds of accusations. Keep in mind, no matter what the reality, many of those are possible, depending upon the politics in iran, with the Supreme Leader thinks is expeditious for him, that will be their primary focus at this point, they just lost a president , a foreign minister, primary focus for the leadership of iran are now will be ensuring stability in their own country, their own demented concern, and already, you heard ayatollah khamenei, the preemie Supreme Leader, even suppress the announcement that he had died, making a statement that he would be found, and also saying, dont worry, im paraphrasing, this will not disrupt the politics of the country. He will certainly be helping so. So, i think this these hours, despite clear evidence of what is likely to have caused this, these hours will be undetectable. Instability will be the driving force, thank you, in these coming hours, and that will be worrying leaders here in the gulf, where i am, all the way to washington. Claudio lovato, as you are watching this video just like Everyone Else, getting the prelude to this Breaking News that irans president was killed in a Helicopter Crash and 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 Ministers he was saying, also on this helicopter, unfortunately. Reporter thats right. As well as, we are told, the governor of east azerbaijan. His name was malik as well, as of course the security detail, so there are several people but the two most important people who have died is the president and the foreign minister, so that means there will of course be a major shakeup in the government of iran following in the next few days and of course, moving up to the election. What we are probably going 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 indications that tracy lost his life in that crash, waiting until about half an hour ago to announce it officially. What we saw was a State Media Playing out prayers for gracie, there were also airing footage, images of large pits of people, irani and spring for gracie. So what we expect the state media to do in the next few hours will be to show the outpouring, the morning by the iranian people, perhaps praying for him, whether that is an indication of what the general feeling of iran of course is, we dont know. State media in the way it operates will concentrate on that. Now, as richard and kyrou were saying, we know that, it was very bad weather and foggy conditions because we have seen those images of rescuers, on foot, trying to reach the location of the crash, and it was very small visibility, just a few meters, as the state media said. In the end, when they reached that site, a couple of hours ago, we got confirmation from state media that there was no sign of life, and only one hour later, anchors on the main channel, a state media in iran, wearing black, a clear sign of mourning, anticipating that news, that we were just waiting to hear, but it will be very interesting to see how this plays out. Today, of course what we will see, we will see irani and people morning, we will see leaders reacting from Around The World it will also be very interesting to see whether the ayatollah and other leaders will take this opportunity, perhaps, to stir emotions and blame influence, or foreign agents, from, for instance, israel or the United States, or whether they will just stick through what is most likely the cause of that crash, which as far as we know, for now, bad weather, or perhaps a combination of bad weather and malfunction in the helicopter, that the president and Prime Minister were flying in. Standby, we will take a short break with the question now, how will the United States react to this . What will they do in this latest development . We will approach that subject when we return on the Breaking News, the death of irans president , after this. Esident,. With our highest concentration of provitamins yet, infused with ingredients like biotin collagen. 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Sotyktu is a tyk2 inhibitor. Tyk2 is part of the jak family. Its not known if sotyktu has the same risks as jak inhibitors. Find what Plaque Psoriasis has been hiding. Theres only one sotyktu, so ask for it by name. So clearly you. Sotyktu. We continue following Breaking News out of iran. Iran state tv announcing that the countrys president , Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a Helicopter Crash on sunday. Iranian tv confirming that the president of iran was killed in a Helicopter Crash but if youre just joining us here on msnbc, leading up to this news with the terms of a hard crash, not lost, unknown, in terms of where this helicopter was, that the president had boarded, along with two other helicopters, a total of three helicopters, again, according to Iranian State media. We know now, according to their own state media, that the crash site you can see on screen in the upper left, in the north of iran, that the helicopter of irans president , has indeed crashed, and no signs of life were found at this crash site. Some of the video you can see on the left side, that we have received from iran state media, as well, as is very clear here, that the fog, according to the storyline, up to today, is consistent with, if this video is close, the location of the crash site. Claudio is still with us, as we look at, what might the reactions coming forward from this news, what should we be looking out for, not only from the region, but also from europe as well as the United States . In this region, as we have been discussing at the start of this hour, at the level of instability to begin with, was quite a notable level. Reporter of course, we just received the first reaction, which as you will expect, is coming from hamas, as you know, of course, iran and hamas were strongly linked. Iran has supported palestinian forces and hamas for a long time, financially and also with training. There was always speculation about how involved it could have been or how much it could have helped hamas during the october the seventh attacks, even though iran has always denied any direct involvement. , has sent out a statement, in the last few minutes, saying that it offers its sincere condolences, to the iranian people, and the ayatollah, and i am misreading a bit of it, saying, we are confident the Islamic Republic of iran will be able to overcome this great loss, the deer irani and people have instant ancient institutions capable of dealing with the severe ordeal. Now again, this is an official statement from hamas, they were expected to be some of the first to react, now, it is about 7 20 in the morning here in rome, and the rest of continental europe, a bit earlier, of course in london and Eastern Parts of europe, so, we are still waiting for reactions from leaders, and it will be very interesting to see what they are, but this statement from hamas is interesting, but because it will say the ancient institutions, but it also means is that, clearly, as richard was saying earlier, the death of the president of iran doesnt really create major issues, in the way that iran is run, some because of the main leader of iran, the Supreme Leader, the ayatollah khamenei. And as richard was also saying, the death of the president , Ebrahim Raisi was the main frontrunner to replace khamenei as a Supreme Leader. Now really, iran still has a Supreme Leader, that is the leader that they answer to, the iranian government answers to, the president answers to, the Supreme Leader. So, this will only be a matter, lets say, finding the new president with the same, perhaps, hardline policies, so as not to create any confusions, and in the way that this country is being run. , the one immediate thing that we are seeing our reactions from Around The World, we discussed the reaction from hamas and we are waiting for reactions, as leaders across europe, especially here, are just waking up to the news. Richard . News of the reaction from hamas, lets get over to richard engel, this is 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, the militant groups that they have supported. Doesnt get a hiccup for the moment . Reporter it probably does not. Hamas is correct in one sense, in saying that iran does have institutions that they are not ancient institutions, the theocracy in iran is relatively recent. Relatively new. Have systems of kings and shaws that ran iran for thousands of years. They were overthrown, the entire system was abolished in 1979, when you had the arrival of the Iranian Revolutionary system, there have only been two Supreme Leaders. The first one, ayatollah khamenei, khomeini and his successor, ayatollah khamenei. This country is still relatively new, this is a relatively new theocracy, and what iran did in 1979, you remember there were Student Protests just at the end of the iran and iraq war, there was the american Hostage Crisis when the u. S. Embassy was taken over by radical students. Out of that environment, the iranians decided, with protests on the street, and a quick takeover by the theocrac