The lives of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister were feared to be in jeopardy after their helicopter crashed Sunday amid heavy fog in a mountainous area of the country’s northwest, prompting a massive search and rescue effort.
We are still hopeful, but information coming from the crash site is very concerning, an official who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters. Darkness and cold, rainy, muddy conditions made it difficult for rescuers to reach the incident site.
Unfortunately Iranian state media have confirmed that President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in the helicopter crash in the northwestern province of East Azerbaijan.
His entire entourage, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Governor of East Azerbaijan Malek Rahmati, also perished, Press TV said.
The head of state had traveled to the border region after joining Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on Saturday to inaugurate a dam. Raisi had pledged to visit each of Iran’s 30 provinces at least once a year, and regularly.
The chief of staff of Iran’s army ordered all the resources of the army and the elite Revolutionary Guard to be put to use in the search and rescue operations.
Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, and the rest of their team were returning from a trip to the border with Azerbaijan for the inauguration of a dam.
Raisi, 63, is second only to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the country’s political hierarchy. The hard-liner has long been considered a strong candidate to succeed Khamenei, his 85-year-old mentor.
The wreckage was discovered in a wooded area on a mountain slope. The aircraft was severely damaged and charred, and there were no signs of survivors. With Raisi’s passing, First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber is expected to take office as interim leader.
A representative of the republic’s conservative wing, Raisi, was elected in 2021.
Before assuming the presidency, he had worked his way up from Prosecutor and Deputy Prosecutor in Tehran in the 1980’s and 1990’s all the way to attorney general, and later chief justice.
The incident comes at a turbulent moment for Iran, the main supporter of anti-Israeli militia groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthi’s in Yemen.
Last month, Iran took the unprecedented step of sending a barrage of missiles and drones into Israeli territory — an attack largely repelled with the help of U.S. forces — in retaliation for the killing of a top Iranian general and other military officials at the Iranian embassy in Syria, a strike widely attributed to Israel.
Raisi and the rest of his traveling party were flying in a U.S.-made Bell 212 helicopter with capacity for 15 people, including crew, although it’s not clear how many were on board.
Moscow is ready to send rescuers to help the Iranian colleagues in their search operation for President Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter that crash landed in a mountainous area in northwestern Iran.
Russia ordered to send two planes and helicopters with a group of 50 rescuers to aid in the search for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter, Russian Presidential Aide Igor Levitin said during a phone call with First Vice President of Iran Muhammad Mukhbar.
Rescue teams launched a search operation within an hour of the incident, but adverse weather conditions hampered the process. They finally managed to locate the crash site on Monday morning with the help of Turkish surveillance drones.
USA Today / ABC Flash Point News 2024.
Israeli sabotage the best in the world.
Helicopters are dangerous things. Elections have to be held within 50 days and we can’t turn back time so moving forward I think more than likely the Iran military may consolidate power and if they do then Israel and USA should tread carefully.
Raisi was quite moderate as a conservative but the Iranian military and perhaps the religious faction won’t be moderate.
Strangely, the emergency meeting at the black house was organized, even though the helicopter had not yet been located!!!
As in any accident of this kind, the culprits are very often unmasked. Do not forget the agreements of May 13 between India and Iran, which caused immense harm to the Israeli development plan.
Mossad must be jubilant, but the jubilation will be very short.
Why are all these people blaming Israel without any evidence you ask? Let’s see. The Israeli-US joint cyber people targeted the Siemens logic controllers within Iran’s civilian nuclear program, Iranian commanders and scientists are assassinated deep within Iranian territory. Mossad helped the USA target Soleimani. Israel openly talked about blowing up Iranian nuclear sites a few weeks ago. They bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus. Western NGOs tried to use the young lady – Amini’s death to spark a revolution in Iran. Lastly, this is the leader of Iran, a country that in the face of Western sanctions for decades,… Read more »
“It wasn’t us” — I never believe anything until the government officially denies it.
The Venezuelan president and his wife also expressed condolences to Iran in connection with the “irreparable losses” after the crash of the presidential helicopter, expressing hope for the preservation of the legacy, as well as for an investigation into the circumstances of the tragedy.
The altimeter was tampered with, the helicopter was flying over foggy covered mountains, in bad weather for most of the many legs in its flight plan, that model helicopter has a short range, it had to make many stops for fuel along its route, the altimeter could have been tampered with very easily anywhere they stopped for fuel. Iran needs to investigate who had contact with the helicopter at every stop, beginning with the origin of the flight in Azerbaijan. Another clue to this is the other two helicopters traveling in formation with them had no problem navigating the mountainous… Read more »
A USAF C-17 was flying from Turkey to Azerbaijan and was in the area when the helicopter went down. This C-17 flight was the first in over a year to this region.