Brian McDonald
Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s foreign minister and others were found dead at the site of a helicopter crash on Monday after an hours-long search in a foggy, mountainous region in the country’s northwest, the country said. state media. Raisi was 63 years old.
The crash comes as the Middle East remains roiled by the Israel-Hamas war, during which Raisi, under the command of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, launched an unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel last month. Under Raisi, Iran enriched uranium closer to weapons-grade levels than ever before, further raising tensions with the West as Tehran also supplied bomb-carrying drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine and to armed militia groups. throughout the region.
Office of the Iranian Presidency via AP
Meanwhile, Iran has faced years of mass protests against its Shiite theocracy over its struggling economy and women’s rights – making the moment that much more sensitive for Tehran and the country’s future.
State TV gave no immediate cause for the accident in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. Among those killed was Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, 60.
With Raisi were Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province and other officials and bodyguards, state news agency IRNA reported.
On Monday morning, Turkish authorities released what they described as drone footage showing what appeared to be a desert fire, which they “suspected to be helicopter debris.” Coordinates listed in the footage place the fire about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of the Azerbaijan-Iran border, on the side of a steep mountain.
Images released by IRNA on Monday morning showed what the agency described as the crash site, across a steep valley in a lush green mountain range. Soldiers speaking the local Azeri language said: “There it is, we found it.”
Khamenei himself urged the public to pray on Sunday night.
“We hope that Almighty God returns the dear president and his colleagues in full health to the arms of the nation,” Khamenei said, eliciting an “amen” from the faithful he was addressing.
However, the supreme leader also stressed that the Iranian government’s business would continue regardless of what happened. According to the Iranian constitution, Iran’s first vice president assumes power if the president dies with Khamenei’s consent, and a new presidential election would be called within 50 days. First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber had already started receiving calls from foreign officials and governments in Raisi’s absence, state media reported.
Raisi, 63, a hardliner who previously led the country’s judiciary, is seen as a protégé of Khamenei and some analysts have suggested he could replace the 85-year-old leader upon Khamenei’s death or resignation.
Raisi won Iran’s 2021 presidential election, a vote that saw the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic. Raisi is sanctioned by the US in part because of 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 to near weapons-grade levels and hampers international inspections. Iran armed Russia in its war against Ukraine, as well as launching a massive drone and missile attack against Israel in the midst of its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It also continued to arm proxy groups in the Middle East, such as Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, mass protests in the country have been going on for years. The most recent involved the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who had previously been detained for allegedly not wearing a hijab, or headscarf, to the liking of authorities. The months-long security crackdown that followed the demonstrations killed more than 500 people and resulted in the detention of more than 22,000.
In March, a United Nations investigative panel concluded that Iran was responsible for the “physical violence” that led to Amini’s death.
The accident occurred when Iran, under the command of Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, launched an unprecedented drone and missile attack against Israel last month and enriched uranium closer to weapons-grade levels than ever before.
Iran also faced years of mass protests against his Shia theocracy over a struggling economy and women’s rights – making the moment that much more sensitive for Tehran and the country’s future as war between Israel and Hamas inflames the wider Middle East.
Raisi was in Azerbaijan on Sunday morning to inaugurate a dam with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The dam is the third that the two nations have built on the Aras River. The visit took place despite cold relations between the two nations, including due to an armed attack on the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran in 2023, and Azerbaijan’s diplomatic relations with Israel, which Iran’s Shiite theocracy views as its main enemy in the region. .
Ali Hamed Haghdoust/IRNA/WANA (West Asian News Agency) via REUTERS
“Azerbaijan stands ready to provide any necessary assistance,” Aliyev said in a statement. post on X. “We were deeply concerned by the news that a helicopter carrying the main delegation had landed in Iran.”
Iran operates several helicopters in the country, but international sanctions make it difficult to obtain parts for them. Its military air fleet also largely dates back to before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Raisi, 63, is a hardliner who previously led the country’s judiciary. He is seen as a protégé of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and some analysts have suggested he could replace the 85-year-old leader upon his death or resignation.
Raisi won Iran’s 2021 presidential election, a vote that saw the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic. Raisi is sanctioned by the US in part because of his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 at the end of the bloody Iran-Iraq war.
In 2022, He said “60 Minutes” that the sanctions, implemented by former President Donald Trump and maintained by President Biden, are “tyrannical.”
“The new administration in the US claims it is different from the Trump administration,” Raisi told Lesley Stahl. “They said so in their messages to us. But we have not witnessed any change in reality.”
Under Raisi, Iran now enriches uranium to near weapons-grade levels and hampers international inspections. Iran armed Russia in its war against Ukraine, as well as launching a massive drone and missile attack against Israel in the midst of its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It also continued to arm proxy groups in the Middle East, such as Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
