Following an hours-long search throughout a foggy, hilly region of the country’s northwest, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the foreign minister, and other individuals were discovered dead at the scene of a helicopter accident on Monday, according to official television. Raisi was sixty-three.
The disaster occurs while the Israel-Hamas conflict, which has left the Middle East uneasy, rages on. Just last month, Raisi, headed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, launched an unprecedented drone and missile strike on Israel. Tensions with the West increased under Raisi as Tehran sent bomb-carrying drones to Russia for its conflict in Ukraine and armed militia groups around the region. Iran also refined uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.
The situation is particularly delicate for Tehran and the future of the nation since Iran has endured years of large-scale protests against its Shiite theocracy due to issues with women’s rights and the country’s failing economy.
No apparent cause for the crash in the Iranian region of East Azerbaijan was provided by state TV. Hossein Amirabdollahian, a 60-year-old Iranian foreign minister, was among the deceased.
Raisi was going through the region of East Azerbaijan in Iran. About 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of Tehran, the capital of Iran, near the city of Jolfa, on the border with the country of Azerbaijan, was the scene of what state TV described as a “hard landing.” Later, state TV moved it closer to the town of Uzi in the east, but the specifics remained unclear.
The governor of Iran’s province of East Azerbaijan, Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, as well as other officials and bodyguards, accompanied Raisi, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. While several local government representatives referred to the event as a “hard landing” or a “crash,” one official used the term “crash.”
Turkish officials published what they said to be drone footage early on Monday morning, depicting what looked to be a wildfire in the woods that they “suspected to be wreckage of helicopter.” The fire was located on a steep mountainside about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of the border between Azerbaijan and Iran, according to the locations shown in the video.
Early on Monday, the IRNA posted footage that seemed to be the accident scene, which was located across a steep valley in a range of green mountains, according to the agency. Speaking in the Azeri dialect used there, the soldiers declared, “There it is, we found it.”
Soon after, state television said, “There is no sign of live from people on board,” in a scrolling paragraph on the screen. The semiofficial Tasnim news agency did not provide any details, but it did show rescuers flying over the scene with a tiny drone while they talked among themselves and said the same thing.
Public prayer had been recommended by religious leaders. Images of hundreds of worshippers in Qom and other places throughout the nation, as well as at the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad, one of the holiest places for Shiites, were shown on state television. Some of the worshippers even had their hands up in prayer. The prayers were shown constantly on the main channel of state television.
A group of men watched a video of Raisi praying while kneeling on the side of the road in Tehran, some of them clearly crying as they held prayer beads.
Mehdi Seyedi, one of the guys, remarked, “We’ll be heartbroken if anything happens to him.” “May the prayers be answered, and may he safely return to the nation’s arms.”
The location is known to be hilly, and IRNA referred to it as a “forest.” SUVs were seen speeding through a forested region on State TV, which said that bad weather, including wind and heavy rain, was impeding their progress. The mist and fog revealed rescuers on foot.
Additionally, Khamenei personally asked people to pray.
With a “amen” from the worshippers, Khamenei said, “We hope that God the Almighty returns the dear president and his colleagues in full health to the arms of the nation.”
The supreme leader of Iran emphasized that the government’s operations will carry on as usual. As per the Iranian constitution, in the event of the president’s demise, the vice president assumes the role with the approval of Khamenei, and a fresh presidential election is scheduled to take place in 50 days. In Raisi’s absence, first vice president Mohammad Mokhber had already started fielding calls from authorities and other nations, according to state media.
Hardliner Raisi, 63, who once oversaw the nation’s judiciary, is seen of as Khamenei’s protégé. Some observers have speculated that Raisi may succeed the 85-year-old leader in the event of Khamenei’s demise or resignation.
To officially open a dam with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, Raisi had traveled to the country’s border early on Sunday. This is the third dam on the Aras River that the two countries have constructed. The visit took place in spite of the tense relations between the two countries, which stem from a gun attack on the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran in 2023 as well as Azerbaijan’s diplomatic ties with Israel, which the Shiite theocracy in Iran sees as its primary regional foe.
Iran operates a range of helicopters, but getting spare parts for them is challenging due to international sanctions. Its fleet of military aircraft likewise predates the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in most cases. IRNA released pictures that it said showed Raisi taking off in a vehicle that looked like a Bell helicopter and had the same blue-and-white paint job as those that had been published.
Iran’s 2021 presidential election witnessed the lowest voter participation in the country’s history, yet Raisi prevailed. The US has sanctioned Raisi in part because of his role in the mass killing of thousands of political detainees in 1988, at the close of the terrible conflict between Iran and Iraq.
Iran currently obstructs foreign inspections and enriches uranium almost to weapons-grade levels under Raisi. Iran has supplied Russia in the conflict with Ukraine and attacked Israel with a large-scale drone and missile assault as part of its conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Additionally, it has persisted in arming proxies in the Middle East, like as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Years have passed while nationwide demonstrations have been going strong. The latest concerned Mahsa Amini’s death in 2022. She had been jailed previously for reportedly refusing to wear a headscarf, or hijab, to the satisfaction of the authorities. Following the protests, there was a months-long security crackdown that resulted in over 500 deaths and over 22,000 arrests.
Iran was held accountable by a United Nations investigating panel in March for the “physical violence” that resulted in Amini’s murder.
