IRANIAN President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian perished in a helicopter crash in a mountainous area near the country’s border with Azerbaijan, state media and officials said, according to Reuters.
After an overnight search in blizzard conditions, the helicopter’s wreckage was found today. A senior Iranian official told Reuters that there were no survivors of the crash that occurred yesterday.
There was no official word on the crash’s cause, but state television reported that images showed the helicopter slammed into a mountain peak. IRNA, a state news agency, identified the helicopter model as a US-made Bell 212.
Ebrahim, 63, was known as a hardliner and potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in the country. Since his election in 2021, he has tightened morality laws and overseen a violent crackdown on anti-government protesters, while engaging in nuclear negotiations with world powers.
US President Joe Biden had been briefed about the crash, the White House said. China expressed deep concern, while Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar earlier offered assistance to Iran after news of the crash broke. – May 20, 2024.
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