20/05/2024
Iranian govt confirms President Ebrahim Raisi's death in helicopter crash
Chopper crashed on Sunday while crossing a mountainous terrain amid heavy fog in Iran's East Azerbaijan province
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi looks on during a TV interview, in Tehran, Iran May 7, 2024. — Reuters
First Vice-President Mohammad Mokhber to assume power.
Confirmation comes after "hours of extensive search".
Bad weather caused crash, says Iran's state media.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the country's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian have died in a helicopter crash.
The development has been confirmed on Monday by Vice President Mohsen Mansouri in a statement on social media and on state television.
"Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, East Azarbaijan Province’s Governor Malek Rahmati, and Mehdi Mousavi, the head of Raisi’s guard team were on board the crashed aircraft as well," the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) earlier said.
It added that Mohammad Ali Al-e-Hashem, the Supreme Leader’s representative in the East Azerbaijan province, also accompanied the 63-year-old President Raisi and other officials.
Earlier, a senior Iranian official, requesting anonymity following the sensitivity of the development, told Reuters: "President Raisi, the foreign minister and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash."
The wreckage of Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi's helicopter at the crash site on a mountain in Varzaghan area, northwestern Iran, May 20, 2024. — Reuters
Iran's Mehr news agency also confirmed that "all passengers of the helicopter" were "martyred".
The chopper that carried President Raisi and Iran's foreign minister crashed on Sunday while flying through a mountainous terrain amid heavy fog in the Varzaqan region of the country's East Azerbaijan province.
According to Iranian state media, bad weather caused the crash and complicated rescue efforts in the country's northwestern region. Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said Raisi was flying in a US-made Bell 212 helicopter.
Iran Red Crescent Society chief Pir-Hossein Kolivand, in an interview to semi-official Tasnim news agency, said: "No trace of survivors has been seen after the discovery of the site of the crashed helicopter."
An image showing the crash site of the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, FM Hossein Amirabdollahian and other senior officials in this image released on May 20, 2024. — Fars News Agency
He further revealed that rescue teams found the copter's crash site after "hours of extensive search in a mountainous region" in Iran's East Azerbaijan province.
President Raisi, FM Amirabdollahian and other high officials were returning to Iran after attending an inauguration ceremony of a dam on Iran’s border with the Republic of Azerbaijan when the ill-fated chopper crashed Sunday afternoon.
Following the death of the Iranian President, the Islamic Republic's First Vice-President Mohammad Mokhber is set to assume power after the the Supreme Leader's issues an approval, as per Article 131 of Iran's Constitution.
