Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister were killed in a helicopter crash in mountainous terrain and icy weather, an Iranian official said on Monday, after search teams located the wreckage in East Azerbaijan province.
“President Raisi, the foreign minister and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash,” the senior Iranian official told Reuters, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Iran’s Mehr news agency confirmed the deaths, reporting that “all passengers of the helicopter carrying the Iranian president and foreign minister were martyred”.
An Iranian official earlier told Reuters the helicopter carrying Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was completely burned in the crash on Sunday.
State TV reported that images from the site showed the aircraft slammed into a mountain peak, although there was no official word on the cause of the crash.
State news agency IRNA said Raisi was flying in a U.S.-made Bell 212 helicopter.
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.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds ultimate power with a final say on foreign policy and Iran’s nuclear programme, had earlier sought to reassure Iranians, saying there would be no disruption to state affairs.
Prayers, Searches
Rescue teams fought blizzards and difficult terrain through the night to reach the wreckage in the early hours of Monday.
“With the discovery of the crash site, no signs of life have been detected among the helicopter’s passengers,” the head of Iran’s Red Crescent, Pirhossein Kolivand, told state TV.
Earlier, the national broadcaster had stopped all regular programming to show prayers being held for Raisi across the country.
In the early hours of Monday, it showed a rescue team, wearing bright jackets and head torches, huddled around a GPS device as they searched a pitch-black mountainside on foot in a blizzard.
Several countries expressed concern and offered assistance in any rescue.
The White House said U.S. President Joe Biden had been briefed on reports about the crash. China said it was deeply concerned. The European Union offered emergency satellite mapping technology.
Hardline cleric who became President
Ebrahim Raisi is a hardline cleric close to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. His election as president in 2021 consolidated the control of conservatives over every part of the Islamic Republic.
Born in 1960 in Mashhad, home to Iran’s holiest Shia Muslim shrine, he followed in the footsteps of his father, a cleric, and started attended a seminary when he was 15.
He took part in protests against the Western-backed Shah, who was toppled in 1979, while a student and went on to become the deputy prosecutor in Tehran at just 25.
In the late 1980s, he sat on secret tribunals believed to have sentenced thousands of political prisoners to death in what humans rights group say constituted a crime against humanity.
Raisi succeeded Hassan Rouhani as president after a poll which saw many prominent moderate and reformist candidates barred and the majority of voters stay away.
He took power with Iran already facing multiple challenges but his time in office has been dominated by anti-government protests as well as the current war in Gaza.
With Reuters report
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