A search team found the wreckage of the helicopter that killed Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister in East Azerbaijan province on Monday. The crash happened in hilly terrain and icy weather.
It was becoming less likely that Raisi and his foreign minister would escape a helicopter crash in snowy mountains.
“President Raisi’s helicopter was completely burned in the crash … unfortunately, all passengers are feared dead,” a source told Reuters.
The wreckage was in East Azerbaijan province early Monday morning. Rescue teams worked through the night, blizzards and rough terrain, to get there.
“We can see the damage, and things don’t look good,” Pirhossein Kolivand, head of Iran’s Red Crescent, told state TV.
Rasi, who is 63 years old, was chosen president in 2021. Since then, he has toughened morality laws, led a violent crackdown on anti-government protests, and pushed hard in nuclear talks with world powers.
Searches and prayers
The Anadolu news agency said earlier that a Turkish drone found a source of heat that was thought to be the wreckage of the helicopter and gave Iranian authorities the locations of the possible crash site.
Indian National News (INN) said Raisi was riding in a Bell 212 helicopter made in the US.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran and the person who has the most power and the final say on foreign policy and Iran’s nuclear project, tried to reassure the people of Iran by saying that there would be no problems with state business.
All of Iran’s army and the elite Revolutionary Guards were told to help with search and rescue efforts by the army’s chief of staff.
A while ago, the national broadcaster stopped all of its normal shows to show people across the country praying for Raisi.
In the wee hours of Monday morning, it showed a rescue team huddled around a GPS device as they searched a snowy slope on foot in complete darkness.
An army commander in the area was described by state media as saying, “We are thoroughly searching every inch of the general area of the crash.” “The weather in that area is very cold, rainy, and foggy.” It’s starting to snow after all this rain.
The White House said that US Vice President Joe Biden knew about the crash. China said it was very shocked. The European Union offered satellite mapping technology for emergencies.
Hardliner who might take over for Khamenei
There is more and more discontent in Iran about a number of political, social, and economic problems at the same time as the crash. The clerical leaders of Iran are under pressure from around the world because of their disputed nuclear project and their growing military links with Russia during the war in Ukraine.
Since Oct. 7, when Hamas, a friend of Iran, attacked Israel, which led Israel to attack Gaza, fights between groups allied with Iran have broken out all over the Middle East.
There are two parts to Iran’s government: the religious establishment and the government. Khamenei, Raisi’s 85-year-old mentor and supreme leader since 1989, makes all the big policy decisions.
The main policies that Raisi supports have been backed by Khamenei for years, so many people have seen her as a good candidate to replace him.
After eight years of pragmatist Hassan Rouhani as president and a nuclear deal with powers like Washington, all three parts of government were taken over by hardliners after Raisi won an election that was carefully supervised.
Raisi may have lost some support, though, because of the large-scale protests against religious rule and the fact that Western sanctions made it hard to fix Iran’s economy.
On Sunday, Raisi was at the border with Azerbaijan to open the Qiz-Qalasi Dam, which was a joint project. As a “friendly farewell” to Raisi earlier that day, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev offered to help with the rescue.
