The President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday, the country’s vice president said Monday, after a Türkiye’s Akıncı drone detected the location of the crash.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society announced early Monday that they had found the location of the wreckage of President Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter after it was detected by Türkiye’s Akıncı unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
Iran’s official news agency IRNA also confirmed the finding.
The news was posted on IRNA’s Telegram account.
An Iranian official earlier told Reuters the helicopter carrying President Ebrahim 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 had 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.
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.
The crash comes at a time of growing dissent within Iran over various political, social and economic crises.
Iran’s clerical rulers face international pressure over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program and its deepening military ties with Russia during the war in Ukraine.
In Iran’s dual political system, split between the clerical establishment and the government, it is Raisi’s 85-year-old mentor Khamenei, supreme leader since 1989, who holds decision-making power on all major policies.
For years many have seen Raisi as a strong contender to succeed Khamenei, who has endorsed Raisi’s main policies.
Raisi had been at the Azerbaijani border on Sunday to inaugurate the Qiz-Qalasi Dam, a joint project. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, who said he had bid a “friendly farewell” to Raisi earlier in the day, offered assistance in the rescue.
In a statement issued earlier on Sunday, President Ersin Tatar expressed profound sorrow following the news of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter crash.
As search and rescue efforts continued at the time, Tatar had expressed the hope of receiving good news.
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