Rescue teams search overnight to try to locate Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi after his helicopter crashed while returning from a visit to the northwest of the country.
There was thick fog in the area, making conditions difficult for search teams, state media said, without giving a direct cause for Sunday’s incident. Iranian government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi said late in the evening X that there were “no new updates” and that the country was grappling with a “difficult and complicated situation.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged people to pray for Raisi’s health and said “there will be no disruption in the country’s affairs” following the incident, according to a press release broadcast on state television.
Raisi’s air fleet consisted of three helicopters with high-ranking officials, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. Amirabdollahian was believed to have been on Raisi’s plane at the time.
The United States is closely monitoring reports of the incident, a State Department spokesperson said without further comment.
“Extremely difficult” search
Nearly ten hours after the search began, the search was “extremely difficult” due to darkness, thick fog and rain, Pirhossein Koulivand, head of Iran’s emergency medical services, told television of state. Earlier, Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said finding the president’s helicopter would likely take time due to unfavorable conditions.
Turkey’s national disaster agency AFAD said Iran had requested a search and rescue helicopter with night vision capabilities. Some 32 rescue and research personnel as well as six vehicles were also sent to Iran, AFAD said in a message on X.
Turkey’s Defense Ministry said it sent an Akinci drone in response to a request from Iran. He also said a Cougar helicopter remains on alert and will be deployed depending on weather conditions.
The European Union activated its rapid response mapping service following a request for help from Iran, Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarčič said in an article on X.
Raisi, an ultraconservative cleric in his 60s who won Iran’s 2021 presidential election, is considered the favorite to succeed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is the highest authority in the Islamic Republic .
The incident comes at a time of unrest in the Middle East following the war in Gaza between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas – designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. That brought Iran and Israel closer to full-blown conflict and led other Tehran-backed groups, including the Houthis in Yemen and Shiite militias in Iraq, to attack U.S. bases and commercial ships in the Red Region. Sea.
Iranian television broadcast live footage of dozens of ambulances in pouring rain and fog. A journalist stationed near the rescue teams spoke of the difficulties in reaching the accident site, citing impassable roads due to mud and the remoteness of the area.
The broadcast also showed pilgrims praying for Raisi at the holy shrine in Mashhad, the northeastern city where Raisi was born.
Others believed to be on board Raisi’s helicopter included the governor of East Azerbaijan province and the supreme leader’s representative in the city of Tabriz, Iranian media said.
Both Raisi and Amirabdollahian oversaw the restoration of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia through a Chinese-brokered deal announced in March 2023. But at that time, negotiations to revive the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and to lift economic sanctions were also deadlocked. .
Earlier on Sunday, Raisi met his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev to inaugurate a jointly developed dam on the border between the two countries. The incident occurred while Raisi was returning from the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan.
Raisi’s ascension to the presidency came after eight years under the relatively moderate presidency of Hassan Rouhani, who played a central role in the nuclear deal that former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from in 2018.
The U.S. exit from the deal has empowered Iranian hardliners, who have consistently criticized the deal. Raisi was sanctioned in 2019 by the Trump administration, which cited his role in a deadly crackdown a decade earlier against protesters alleging election fraud.
He is also accused by rights groups of being instrumental in the mass execution of thousands of political dissidents in the late 1980s. In 2018, London-based Amnesty International said he had chaired a “death commission” and called on the United Nations to investigate him for crimes against humanity.
Raisi’s first vice president is Mohammad Mokhber, who has represented Iran on numerous recent foreign trips and who, like many senior Iranian officials, is subject to American sanctions.
