As Iranian state television reported, the presidential helicopter with Raisi on board had an unspecified “accident” in bad weather in East Azerbaijan province. Raisi had previously inaugurated a dam project in the province together with Azerbaijan’s head of state Ilhan Aliyev. The accident occurred on the return flight.
Interior Minister Ahmad Wahidi described the accident as a “hard landing due to weather conditions.” Raisi’s convoy consisted of a total of three helicopters, two of which landed safely in the city of Tabriz in northwestern Iran. According to Interior Minister Wahidi, it was “difficult to establish communication with the third helicopter” in which Raisi was sitting. According to the official Irna news agency, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and the governor and main imam of East Azerbaijan were also on board.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei called on the population “not to worry” and assured that there would be “no disruption” to state affairs. “We hope that Almighty God will return our dear President and his companions healthy to the arms of the nation,” Khamenei said in a televised address.
Across the country, believers gathered in mosques and squares to pray for Raisi’s rescue. Interior Minister Wahidi called on the population to find out about further developments “only on state television” and not to trust foreign media.
Countries in the region such as Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey were concerned and offered their help. Turkey sent a team of mountain rescuers and a helicopter with night vision equipment to search for the presidential helicopter. The European Union activated its service to provide geospatial data for the search for the helicopter. The government in Washington said it was following the events.
According to state television, bad weather and thick fog hampered the search work. According to Irna, by late evening more than 60 search teams with sniffer dogs and drones had been dispatched to the forest region where the helicopter went missing. The army, Revolutionary Guards and police officers supported the search, and television channels showed search parties on a mountainside and numerous ambulances waiting.
Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev wrote on the online service X that he was “deeply disturbed by the news that a helicopter with the high-ranking delegation on board crash-landed in Iran.” He prays for President Raisi and his companions.
Raisi has been President of Iran since 2021. During his term in office, the country experienced mass protests sparked by the death of young Mahsa Amini in September 2022. She died after being arrested for allegedly violating strict dress codes for women.
Since the start of the war between the radical Islamic Hamas and Israel in October, tensions between Israel and Iran have also increased again. In April, Iran fired hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel from Iranian soil for the first time after, according to Iranian sources, Israel killed two high-ranking Iranian Revolutionary Guard officials in Syria.
In a speech shortly before his departure on Sunday, Raisi once again emphasized Iran’s support for the Palestinians, saying their cause was “the most important issue in the Muslim world.”
gt/kbh