Dubai: President Sayid Ebrahim Raisi along with foreign minister Amir Abdollahian have been found dead at the site of a helicopter crash Monday after an overnight search through a foggy, mountainous region of the country’s northwest, state media reported. Raisi was 63.
The crash comes as the Middle East remains on edge from the devastating Israeli war on Gaza resulting in an unprecedented Iranian attack on Israel just last month. Under President Raisi, Iran began building ties with neighbouring Arab countries besides strengthening resistance against the US-Israeli alliance in the region.
Urgent search and rescue operations started on Sunday afternoon in the eastern part of Iran for Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and other officials after their helicopter encountered a “hard landing” incident in an area deemed “impassable.”
The semi-official news agency reports that the Iranian president, foreign minister and other occupants of the helicopter, including East Azerbaijan Province Governor Malek Rahmati, have been martyred.
The helicopter went down in the mountains near Jolfa, a city on the border with the nation of Azerbaijan, some 600 kilometres northwest of the capital, Tehran.
Raisi was returning from neighbouring Azerbaijan. According to the local media, nine people were onboard the helicopter and they included president, foreign minister, governor of Eastern Azerbaijan province Malek Rahmati, Tabriz’s Friday prayer Imam Mohammad Ali Alehashem, a pilot, copilot, crew chief, head of security, and another bodyguard.
The local media reported that heavy rains, fog, and wind caused the helicopter crash, while some described it as a “hard landing.”
Raisi, who won Iran’s 2021 presidential election, is sanctioned by the US. Raisi is the second Iranian president to die in office. In 1981, a bomb blast killed President Mohammad Ali Rajai in the chaotic days after the revolution.
