by WorldTribune Staff, May 19, 2024 Contract With Our Readers
Updated 12: 10 a.m., May 20, 2024
A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, among other officials went missing in heavy fog in the mountainous region of northwestern Iran on Sunday.
Early Monday rescuers found the helicopter that had apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran, but “no sign of life” was detected, state media reported before confirming shortly thereafter that Raisi had died in the incident.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday called on Iranians to pray for the safety of the officials who were on the way back to Iran from a meeting Sunday with President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan.
The hardline Iranian president has been widely favored to become the country’s next supreme leader.
Raisi, a longtime protege of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is a former judicial chief who also allegedly played a role in one of the darkest chapters of the Islamic republic with the brutal suppression of the unprecedented months-long anti-establishment protests that erupted in 2022.
Hundreds were killed and thousands arrested as government forces crushed the demonstrations, one of the biggest challenges to the country’s clerical rulers in decades.
Unpopular with much of the Iranian population and its Persian culture, the militant Islamist regime has suffered blows to its leadership and nuclear weapons programs from attacks tied to Israel and a U.S. strike during the Trump administration that killed top terror strategist Qasem Soleimani.
However, early reports including Iranian state television described the incident as an “accident.”
Related: U.S. strike takes out Iran’s top commander, strategic mastermind, January 3, 2020
“We are still hopeful but information coming from the crash site is very concerning,” one Iranian official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
State TV quoted an official as saying that at least one passenger and one crew member had been in contact with rescuers. It also said the helicopter had been found, though Iran’s Red Crescent denied this report.
Earlier reports quoted Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi as saying authorities were awaiting further details on the search and rescue operation, adding that teams were still on the way to the apparent crash site due to difficult weather conditions.
The Guardian reports that the semi-official Fars news agency has urged Iranians to pray for Raisi, and state TV carried prayers for his safety.
According to CNN, Raisi’s helicopter was part of a convoy of three helicopters. The other two helicopters were carrying ministers and officials who arrived at their destination safely.
Raisi, 63, was elected president in 2021, and since taking office has ordered a tightening of morality laws, overseen a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests and pushed hard in nuclear talks with world powers.
In Iran’s dual political system, split between the clerical establishment and the government, it is Raisi’s 85-year-old mentor Khamenei, supreme leader since 1989, who holds decision-making power on all major policies.
For years many have seen Raisi as a strong contender to succeed Khamenei, who has endorsed Raisi’s main policies.
The Organization of Iranian Communities notes that Raisi helped engineer the execution of more than 30,000 political prisoners in 1988 alone.
He also played a played a significant role in the slaughter of 1,500 pro-democracy protesters as the head of the Islamic Republic’s Judiciary, following the 2019 nationwide protests.
🚨🇮🇷#BREAKING: 40 rapid response teams are trying to locate the area where the Iranian President’s helicopter was involved in a “hard landing”. pic.twitter.com/dhaTcukhSK
— Censored Men (@CensoredMen) May 19, 2024
‘No sign of life’ after crash landing of helicopter carrying Iran’s president, foreign minister added by Editor Two on
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