Iran’s president has died following a helicopter crash this morning. Source: UN Photos, Flickr.
Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign prime minster have been killed in a helicopter crash, according to Iranian officials.
Raisi was returning from the Azerbaijani border on Sunday — after inaugurating a Qiz-Qalasi Dam project between the two countries — when reports of a helicopter suffering a “hard landing”, in the Dizmar Protected Area, circulated on local media.
State TV said that the accident happened near Jolfa, a city on the border with Azerbaijan.
Search and rescue efforts were dispatched Monday morning but had been unable to pinpoint the exact location of the crash due to the poor weather conditions, including heavy rain and fog.
The Iranian Army’s chief of staff ordered all resources of the military and the elite Revolutionary Guards to be put to use to find the helicopter.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Iranians to pray for the president following the incident.
“We hope God returns our dear president and his companions to the embrace of the nation,” he said.
“Of course we have to pray, you have to pray as well. We all have to pray for the health of this team led by the president. Their efforts and service to the country is a great blessing.
Rescuers, who finally found the crash site after an hours-long search, said there were “no signs of the helicopter’s occupants being alive”.
Iranian Red Cresent released a statement this evening, confirming the Iranian president’s death.
Raisi, 63, was elected president in 2021 and has since tightened morality laws and pushed hard in nuclear talks with other counties.
Raisi was seen as a strong candidate to succeed his mentor, Supreme leader Khamenei, who holds all the decision-making power in Iran’s dual political system rather than the president.
