Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is confirmed dead after rescuers found a helicopter carrying him and other officials that had crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran the day before. He was 63 years old.
Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian; Governor of Eastern Azerbaijan province Malek Rahmati, Tabriz’s Friday prayer Imam Mohammad Ali Alehashem as well as a pilot, copilot, crew chief, head of security and another bodyguard, were all on board, according to Iranian media. All nine have been declared dead.
‘President Raisi, the foreign minisiter and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash,’ a senior Iranian official told Reuters.
State TV gave no immediate cause for the crash in Iran´s East Azerbaijan province.
Footage released by the IRNA early Monday showed what the agency described as the crash site, across a steep valley in a green mountain range. Soldiers speaking in the local Azeri language said: ‘There it is, we found it.’ An Iranian official said search teams who located the wreckage found ‘no sign of life’.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is confirmed dead after rescuers found a helicopter carrying him and other officials that had crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran the day before. He was 63 years old. Drone footage was seen from the site of the crash early Monday morning.
Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi (left) was pictured moments before the helicopter crash near the border with Azerbaijan which killed him
Mohammad Mokhber, 68, Iran’s first vice president, would assume the role of interim president upon Raisi’s death. Mokhber already had begun receiving calls from officials and foreign governments in Raisi´s absence, state media said .
It was also reported that the nation’s government held an ‘urgent meeting’ Monday, with Raisi’s usual chair left vacant and covered in a black sash in his memory.
Rescue teams fought blizzards and difficult terrain through the night to reach the wreckage in East Azerbaijan province in the early hours of Monday.
Early Monday morning, Turkish authorities released what they described as drone footage showing what appeared to be a fire in the wilderness that they ‘suspected to be wreckage of helicopter.’
The coordinates listed in the footage put the fire some 12 miles south of the Azerbaijan-Iranian border on the side of a steep mountain.
State media claimed that allied Russia sent a 50-man specialist mountain rescue unit to assist the search.
The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations confirmed it in a Telegram post.
Approximately 73 teams, plus detector dogs, were involved, per Iran’s Red Crescent.
The men were on board one of three helicopters travelling in convoy over remote mountainous terrain cloaked in heavy fog when the aircraft went down.
Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi is feared dead after the helicopter crash near the border with Azerbaijan Sunday putting his ‘life at risk’, officials confirmed
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was also found dead in the crash
Raisi was seen in an eerie video staring out of the window of the aircraft, which was traveling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province near Jolfa, around 375 miles northwest of Tehran when it crashed.
The mystery crash immediately ratcheted up tensions across the world. Iran is a major sponsor of Hamas which has been under relentless attack in Gaza since the terrorists launched the October 7 attacks on Israel.
Tehran is also a weapons supplier to Russia in its war on Ukraine – and some Moscow propagandists linked the president’s disappearance to the attempted assassination of pro-Kremlin Slovakian leader Robert Fico last week.
The Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs applauded ‘numerous’ nations and organizations for helping the effort.
‘The Islamic Republic of Iran sincerely thanks the numerous governments, nations, and international organizations for their expressions of human emotion and solidarity with the government and people of Iran, as well as their offers of help and assistance for the search and rescue operation,’ the statement said.
Some of the president’s on board entourage were reportedly able to communicate with rescue teams after the crash, ‘raising hopes that the incident could have ended without casualties’, according to Iranian news agency Tasnim.
Initial reports claimed Raisi’s aircraft had been forced to make a ‘hard landing’ in a forested area north of Varzeghan city in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province.
However last night regime loyalists gathered to pray for his wellbeing as the prospects of a rescue appeared to recede.
A helicopter carrying Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi takes off near the Iran-Azerbaijan border on May 19
He was seen staring out of the window of the aircraft, which was traveling in Iran ‘s East Azerbaijan province near Jolfa, around 375 miles northwest of Tehran when it crashed
Rescuers were last night struggling to locate the Iranian president after the helicopter he was travelling in crashed in bad weather
While most commentators said the heavy fog could be to blame, Russian sources pushed unsubstantiated conspiracy theories blaming the West.
Vladimir Putin propagandist Margarita Simonyan – who is editor-in-chief of the state broadcaster RT – issued an extraordinary tirade linking the incident to the recent shooting of Fico in Slovakia.
Raisi and his delegation had been in Azerbaijan to celebrate the opening of a new dam.
Conspiracy theorists claimed Israel could be involved, noting that Azerbaijan is one of Israel’s few Muslim allies.
Both Azerbaijan and Iraq offered to help with the search. The incident comes a month after Iran launched an unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel.
Raisi, who died aged 63, rose through Iran’s theocracy from hardline prosecutor to uncompromising president, overseeing a crackdown on protests at home and pushing hard in nuclear talks with world powers as he burnished his credentials to position himself to become the next supreme leader.
His hardline position was also evident in domestic politics. A year after his election, the mid-ranking cleric ordered tighter enforcement of Iran’s ‘hijab and chastity law’ restricting women’s dress and behaviour.
Mahsa Amini, 22, was detained by morality police for wearing ‘improper’ hijab in 2022 and died three days later in hospital, sparking mass unrest.
Rescue crews sped through a misty, rural forest where his helicopter was believed to be
Rescue vehicles taking part in the search for the crashed helicopter carrying President Raisi
A Turkish drone identified a source of heat suspected to be the helicopter’s wreckage and had shared the coordinates of the possible crash site with Iranian authorities, Anadolu news agency said on X
The resulting months of nationwide protests presented one of the gravest challenges to Iran’s clerical rulers since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Hundreds of people were killed, according to rights groups, including dozens of security personnel who were part of a fierce crackdown on the demonstrators. ‘Acts of chaos are unacceptable,’ the president insisted.
Elected president in a closely controlled vote in 2021, Raisi took a tough stance in nuclear negotiations, seeing a chance to win broad relief from U.S. sanctions in return for only modest curbs on Iran’s increasingly advanced technology.
Iran’s hardliners had been emboldened by the chaotic U.S. military withdrawal from neighboring Afghanistan and policy swings in Washington.
In 2018, then-U.S. president Donald Trump had reneged on the deal Tehran had made with the six powers and restored harsh U.S. sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to progressively violate the agreement’s nuclear limits.
Indirect talks between Tehran and U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration to revive the deal have stalled.
Raisi’s election victory, after heavyweight conservative and moderate rivals were disqualified by a hardline oversight body, brought all branches of power in Iran under the control of hardliners loyal to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and bolstered Raisi’s chances of one day succeeding him as Supreme Leader.
However, the widespread protests against clerical rule and a failure to turn around Iran’s struggling economy – hamstrung by Western sanctions and mismanagement – may have diminished his popularity at home.
State media claimed that allied Russia is sending a 50-man specialist mountain rescue unit to assist the search. The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations confirmed it in a Telegram post
All army and Iranian guard resources were utilized in the search efforts for the helicopter
Raisi was born in 1960 to a religious family in Iran’s holy Shi’ite Muslim city of Mashhad. At age 5, he lost his father. Still, he followed in his footsteps to become a cleric.
As a young student at a religious seminary in the holy city of Qom, Raisi took part in protests against the Western-backed Shah in the 1979 revolution. Later, his contacts with religious leaders in Qom made him a trusted figure in the judiciary.
Khamenei urged the public to pray Sunday night.
‘We hope that God the Almighty returns the dear president and his colleagues in full health to the arms of the nation,’ Khamenei said, drawing an ‘amen’ from the worshipers he was addressing.
However, the supreme leader also stressed the business of Iran´s government would continue no matter what. Under the Iranian constitution, Iran´s vice first president takes over if the president dies with Khamenei´s ascent, and a new presidential election would be called within 50 days.
President Joe Biden has been briefed on the incident, according to the White House and the US is ‘closely watching’ reports.
Raisi was sanctioned by the U.S. in part over his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 at the end of the bloody Iran-Iraq war.
Under Raisi, Iran now enriches uranium at nearly weapons-grade levels and hampers international inspections.
Iran has armed Russia in its war on Ukraine and launched a massive drone-and-missile attack on Israel amid its conflict in Gaza.
It also has continued arming proxy groups in the Mideast, like Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.