Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi dies in helicopter crash

Photograph copyright: Reuters

Could 20, 2024

Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi, thought of a possible successor to the nation’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has died in a helicopter crash in mountainous terrain close to the border with Azerbaijan.

The charred wreckage of the helicopter that crashed on Sunday, carrying Raisi, Iranian Overseas Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and 6 different folks, was discovered early Monday morning after a 10-hour search sophisticated by climate circumstances.

“President Raisi, the international minister and all passengers on the helicopter have been killed within the crash,” a senior Iranian official advised Reuters.

Raisi’s demise was later confirmed by Vice President Mohsen Mansouri on the social community X, and state tv additionally reported on it.

Play video, “Who’s Ibrahim Raisi, the deceased president of Iran”, Length 1.3601:36 Caption for the video, Who’s Ibrahim Raisi, the deceased president of Iran

Footage from the crash website exhibits that the airplane crashed right into a mountain peak; there was no official info but about the reason for the crash.

State information company IRNA stated Raisi was flying in a US-made Bell 212 helicopter.

First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber will function Iran’s appearing president.

Earlier, rescuers who arrived on the crash website 10 hours after the helicopter crash stated that nobody survived. The top of the Iranian Purple Crescent, Pir Hossein Kolivand, additionally stated on tv that rescuers discovered no indicators of life on the crash website.

The passengers of the helicopter have been the President, the Minister of Overseas Affairs, in addition to the Governor of the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan, Malik Rahmeti, and the Ayatollah of the Tabriz province, Ali Hashim.

The helicopter crashed on Sunday within the mountains of northwestern Iran, close to the borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey. Raisi was coming back from the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan, on the border with Azerbaijan, the place he and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev participated within the commissioning ceremony of a dam on the border Araks River.

picture copyrightMEHR NEWS AGENCY

Photograph caption: Raisi earlier than boarding the helicopter – precisely when this picture was taken is unclear

Iranian Inside Minister Ahmad Vahidi stated that very dangerous climate circumstances prevented rescuers from reaching the scene. At night time, the Anadolu Company, which broadcast from a Turkish drone despatched to seek for the Iranian president’s helicopter, reported that the drone had discovered a possible crash website within the mountains. Rescue groups went to this place.

The Tasnim company reported that two of the three helicopters from the convoy reached their vacation spot safely. In keeping with the company, they have been carrying Iranian Power Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian and Roads and City Growth Minister Mehrdad Bazarpash.

Worldwide sanctions make it tough to restore and preserve helicopters in Iran. The nation’s air power was additionally largely shaped earlier than the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Raisi, 63, was thought of a hardliner and had lengthy been thought of a possible successor to Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Reuters reported.

He grew to become the deputy prosecutor of Tehran when he was solely 25 years outdated, was the prosecutor of Tehran, and in 2014 grew to become the prosecutor normal of Iran. In 2019, Ayatollah Khamenei appointed him to the highly effective place of head of the nation’s judiciary.

Raisi received the presidential elections in 2021. Since taking workplace, he has moved to tighten morality legal guidelines, led a crackdown on anti-government protests and actively promoted nuclear negotiations with world powers, Reuters notes.

The Iranian president was underneath American sanctions, together with over the 1988 executions of political prisoners on the finish of the Iran-Iraq Warfare.

The White Home stated US President Joe Biden had been briefed on stories of the crash. China stated it was deeply involved. The EU activated its Copernicus speedy response mapping service to assist find the helicopter.

By order of Russian President Vladimir Putin, two Emergency Conditions Ministry planes flew to Iran at night time. Within the morning they turned again to Moscow.

The Iranian Ambassador to Moscow advised IRNA that Putin held a gathering with him on the night of Could 19, which was attended by Protection Minister Andrei Belousov, Safety Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu, Chief of the Russian Common Employees Valery Gerasimov, Presidential Adviser Igor Levitin, Emergency Conditions Minister Alexander Kurenkov and one of many senior FSB officers, whose identify the ambassador didn’t point out. In keeping with the ambassador, Putin requested him in regards to the particulars of the helicopter crash and expressed his readiness to offer help.

The helicopter crash and the demise of the Iranian president occurred towards the backdrop of rising divisions inside Iran over a sequence of political, social and financial crises, Reuters notes. The nation’s clerical authorities face worldwide stress over Tehran’s nuclear program and its deepening navy ties with Russia through the conflict in Ukraine.

The company additionally recollects that since Hamas, an ally of Iran, attacked Israel on October 7, triggering a conflict within the Gaza Strip, conflicts involving Iranian teams have occurred all through the Center East. In Iran’s political system, 85-year-old Khamenei, supreme chief since 1989, has decision-making authority on all main insurance policies, and for years Raisi was seen by many because the almost certainly contender to succeed Khamenei, who has supported Raisi’s insurance policies.