The story: A helicopter carrying senior Iranian officials including President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has crashed in northwest Iran. Poor weather and impassable terrain have made it difficult for search and rescue teams to reach the crash site. In the early hours of May 20, a Turkish reconnaissance drone which joined the rescue effort identified a heat source in a remote area near the border with Azerbaijan. However, there is still no official confirmation of the fates of those on board the chopper.

If the president is found dead or left incapacitated for longer than two months, early presidential elections would be mandated under the constitution. Such a scenario could provide the conservative-dominated establishment an...