Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian have been pronounced dead after a helicopter crash, Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Monday. The accident occurred on Sunday amid challenging conditions in mountainous terrain and icy weather in eastern Azerbaijan.
According to Reuters, a helicopter carrying Iran’s president and other senior officials was found completely burned in a forest on Monday.
The report said rescue teams battled blizzards and difficult terrain overnight to reach the wreckage in East Azerbaijan province early Monday.
The head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, Pir Hossein Kolivand, told media that rescuers saw the helicopter from about 2 kilometers away on Monday morning.
The incident occurred on his way back from a visit to Iran’s East Azerbaijan province after the two nations inaugurated a dam in the region. The dam is the third they have built on the Aras River.
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What was the origin of the helicopter?
The helicopter that crashed on Sunday was a Bell 212. It is widely used around the world by both governments and private operators. The Iranian model that crashed on Sunday was configured to carry government passengers. Bell Helicopter is advertising the latest version, the Subaru Bell 412, for police use, medical transport, troop transport, the energy industry and firefighting.
Ebrahim Raisi
President Ebrahim Raisi, 63, a hardliner who previously headed the local judiciary, is considered a protégé of Khamenei. Some analysts have suggested he could replace the 85-year-old leader following the death or resignation of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Raisi won Iran’s 2021 presidential election, a vote that saw the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history. The US imposed sanctions on Raisi in part because of his alleged involvement in the mass executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 at the end of the bloody Iran-Iraq war.
