According to Reuters, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and his Foreign Minister perished in a helicopter crash on Monday. The wreckage was found in the province of East, Azerbaijan by search crews.
The incident occurred on Sunday in icy conditions and steep terrain.
A senior Iranian source told Reuters, ‘President Raisi, the foreign minister, and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash,’ requesting anonymity due to the delicate nature of the situation.
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Once the killings were confirmed, the Mehr news agency in Iran stated that “all motorists of the helicopter transporting the Iranian president and foreign minister were martyred.
According to the BBC, the Sunday crash totally incinerated the helicopter that was carrying Hossein Amirabdollahian, the foreign minister, and Raisi. While the cause of the crash remained unknown, Iran State TV also revealed that photos taken at the scene showed the airplane colliding with a mountain peak.
It was reported that Mr. Raisi, 63, was piloting a Bell 212 helicopter, which is manufactured in the United States. One of the three helicopters in the convoy had difficulties in dense fog in the country’s north, forcing it to make a ‘hard landing.’
According to local media, Mr. Raisi was returning from a location near the Iran-Azerbaijan border and was traveling to the city of Tabriz, which is located in northwest Iran.
To get to the wreckage in the wee hours of Monday morning, rescue crews battled through the night against blizzards and challenging terrain.
‘After the accident site was located; no ‘We have found indications of life among the occupants of the helicopter,’ Pirhossein Kolivand, the head of Iran’s Red Crescent, said on state television.
The state TV had already canceled its normal programming to broadcast national prayers for Raisi.
In a prior attempt to reassure Iranians, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has the final say over all matters pertaining to the country, including its nuclear program and foreign the policy level, which had promised that state affairs wouldn’t be disturbed.
Mr. Khamenei commented on X, ‘Everyone should pray for the health of these people who are serving the Iranian nation.’ ‘There is no reason for concern or anxiety on the part of the nation, as there will be no disturbance to the country’s administration.’
Profile: Iran’s president
The sixty-three-year-old Mr. Raisi, a representative of conservative and conservative groups in Iranian politics, served as president for almost three years, and according to Al Jazeera, ‘looked on track to run for re-election next year.’
Mr. Raisi, formerly the chief justice of Iran, was regarded as a possible replacement for Iran’s 85-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.
Northeastern Iran’s Mashhad, a center of Shia Muslim learning, is where Mr. Raisi was born. He received training and religious instruction at the Qom Seminary from eminent academics like Mr. Khamenei.
In 2021, he was elected president in the face of poor voter turnout and the widespread disqualification of moderate and reformist contenders.
Similar to other prominent Iranian figures, he reserved his sharpest words for Israel and the United States, and subsequently for their allies in the West.
After, Mr. Raisi gave numerous speeches. the commencement of the Gaza War to denounce the ‘genocide’ and massacres’ that Israel was committing against the Palestinian people, and to urge intervention from the international community.
