President Ebrahim Raisi took office in 2021 (Reuters)
The helicopter crashed while crossing mountainous terrain, killing all passengers
Reposted from Middle East Eye
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister were killed in a helicopter crash in mountainous terrain and icy weather, Iran’s Mehr news agency said Monday, after search teams located the wreckage in East Azerbaijan province.
A senior Iranian official, who asked not to be named, confirmed to Reuters that all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash.
The head of Iran’s Red Crescent, Pirhossein Kolivand, earlier told state television that “no sign” of life was detected among passengers of the helicopter that crashed on Sunday afternoon.
“Upon finding the helicopter, there was no sign of the helicopter passengers being alive as of yet,” state TV reported.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, East Azerbaijan Governor Malek Rahmati and Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem, the representative of the Iranian supreme leader to the province, were in the same helicopter as Raisi.
An official told Reuters that the helicopter was found completely burned and all passengers were feared dead.
Rescue teams faced extreme weather and difficult terrain through the night to reach the wreckage in East Azerbaijan province. The area is covered in thick fog, with temperatures plummeting overnight and the heavy rain turning into snowfall.
Hours after midnight, a Turkish drone identified a source of heat suspected to be the helicopter’s wreckage and shared the coordinates with Iranian authorities who dispatched a large rescue team to the site.
Fears had been growing for Raisi, 63, after contact was lost with the aircraft carrying him back from a visit to the Azerbaijani border. Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi had said the helicopter “made a hard landing” in bad weather.
Iranian state media said images of the wreckage indicate that the helicopter had crashed into a mountain peak, although there was no official word yet on the cause of the crash.The president, a principlist and ideological ally of Khamenei, has been in office since 2021.
According to the Iranian constitution, in the event of the death, dismissal or resignation of the president, or an absence or illness lasting more than two months, the vice president, with the approval of Iran’s supreme leader, is to assume the president’s responsibilities.
A council consisting of the parliamentary speaker, the head of the judiciary and the vice president is then required to arrange the election of a new president within a maximum period of 50 days.
This is a developing story.
Middle East Eye is an independently funded digital news organisation covering stories from the Middle East and North Africa, as well as related content from beyond the region.
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