Ibrahim Raisi, the eighth president to the Islamic Republic of Iran, lost his life along with seven other companions onboard during a chopper crash than happened last Sunday, May 19. The incident happened in northwest Iran, where the president had taken part in the opening ceremony of a dam on Aras River along with his counterpart from Azerbaijan Republic, Ilham Aliyev. He was on his way to return to Tabriz, the capital of Northeast Azerbaijan province, to inaugurate a number of oil refining projects, when the chopper carrying him crashed in a mountainous area, killing all 8 onboard including the president and the minister of foreign affairs, Hossain Amirabdollahian.

On the impact of Raisi death on the petroleum ministry functions in the future and the possibility on any changes in ministry’s policies, minister of petroleum said in a televised program on Tuesday that he and other petroleum ministry mangers had held a meeting in which they have expressed their commitment to the advancement of the ministry targets as planned.

“The petroleum ministry’s managers vowed in the meeting that they would continue the ministry’s projects as planned without any disruption.” Owji said.