Iranian state television reported there was “no sign of life” on the crash site of a helicopter carrying President Ebrahim Raisi that crashed within the country’s northwest.
According to state media, Iranian emergency services had previously positioned the crash site and reported seeing wreckage. The site is near the village of Tavil in northwestern Iran.
Dense fog within the region has hampered search efforts, state media reported. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged people to wish for Raisi’s health and said there can be “no disruption to the country’s affairs” on account of the incident, in accordance with a press release broadcast on state television.
Raisi, an ultra-conservative cleric in his 60s who won Iran’s 2021 presidential election, is taken into account the favourite to succeed Supreme Leader Khamenei.
The incident comes at a time of unrest within the Middle East over the Gaza war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hamas – which is classed as a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union. It has brought Iran and Israel near full-scale conflict and led other Tehran-backed groups, including the Houthis in Yemen and Shiite militias in Iraq, to attack U.S. bases and merchant ships within the Red Sea.
Raisi’s air fleet consisted of three helicopters carrying senior officials, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. Amirabdollahian was believed to be on board Raisi’s plane on the time.
The United States is closely following reports of the incident, a State Department spokesman said without further comment. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday that the intelligence community had told him there was no evidence of a criminal offense, NBC reported reported.
“Extremely difficult” search
Almost 10 hours after the search began, the search was “extremely difficult” on account of darkness, heavy fog and rain, Pirhossein Koulivand, head of Iran’s rescue service, told state television. Earlier, Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said the seek for the president’s helicopter would likely take a while on account of the opposed conditions.
Turkey’s state disaster agency, AFAD, said Iran had requested a search and rescue helicopter with night vision capabilities. About 32 rescue and research employees and 6 vehicles were also sent to Iran, AFAD said in a post on X.
Turkey’s Defense Ministry said it dispatched an Akinci drone in response to a request from Iran. It also said a Cougar helicopter remained on alert and could possibly be deployed depending on weather conditions.
The European Union activated its rapid response mapping service after Iran asked for help, said Janez Lenarčič, EU Commissioner for Crisis Management, in a post on X.
Iranian television broadcast live footage of scores of ambulances in heavy rain and fog. A reporter stationed near the rescue teams mentioned the challenges in reaching the crash site, citing impassable roads on account of mud and the remoteness of the world.
The broadcast also showed pilgrims praying for Raisi on the holy shrine in Mashhad, the northeastern city where Raisi was born.
Also on board Raisi’s helicopter were the governor of East Azerbaijan province and the Supreme Leader’s representative in the town of Tabriz, in accordance with Iranian media.
Both Raisi and Amirabdollahian oversaw the restoration of Iran’s diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia through a China-brokered deal announced in March 2023. But it was also a time of stalemate in negotiations over reviving Iran’s nuclear cope with world powers and lifting economic sanctions.
Early Sunday, Raisi met his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev to inaugurate a jointly developed dam on the border between the 2 countries. The incident occurred when Raisi was getting back from Iran’s East Azerbaijan province.
Raisi’s ascension to the presidency got here after eight years under the relatively moderate Hassan Rouhani, who played a central role within the nuclear deal from which former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States in 2018.
The US withdrawal from the agreement strengthened the hardliners in Iran, who were all the time critical of the agreement. Raisi was sanctioned in 2019 by the Trump administration, which cited his role in a deadly crackdown on protesters a decade ago over election fraud.
Human rights groups also accuse him of playing a key role within the mass execution of hundreds of political dissidents within the late Nineteen Eighties. In 2018, London-based Amnesty International said he chaired a “death commission” and called on the United Nations to research him for crimes against humanity.
Raisi’s first vice chairman is Mohammad Mokhber, who has recently represented Iran on many foreign trips and to whom he, like many senior Iranian officials, reports US sanctions.
