Home / World News / Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi killed in helicopter crash, central says

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi killed in helicopter crash, central says



DUBAI:

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his unfamiliar apportion were killed in a helicopter pile-up in alpine turf and icy weather, an Iranian central pronounced on Monday, after hunt teams located a disadvantage in East Azerbaijan province.

Hopes were vanishing that Raisi and his unfamiliar apportion have survived a helicopter pile-up in alpine turf and icy weather.

“President Raisi’s helicopter was totally burnt in a pile-up … unfortunately, all passengers are feared dead,” a central told Reuters.

Rescue teams fought blizzards and formidable turf by a night to strech a disadvantage in East Azerbaijan range in a early hours of Monday.

“We can see a disadvantage and a conditions does not demeanour good,” a conduct of Iran’s Red Crescent, Pirhossein Kolivand, told state TV.

Rasi, 63, was inaugurated boss in 2021, and given holding bureau has systematic a tightening of probity laws, overseen a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests and pushed tough in arch talks with universe powers.

Prayers, searches

A Turkish worker identified a source of feverishness suspected to be a helicopter’s disadvantage and had common a coordinates of a probable pile-up site with Iranian authorities, Anadolu news group pronounced progressing on X.

State news group IRNA pronounced Raisi was drifting in a US-made Bell 212 helicopter.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who binds ultimate energy with a final contend on unfamiliar process and Iran’s arch programme, sought to encourage Iranians, observant there would be no intrusion to state affairs.

The arch of staff of Iran’s army systematic all resources of a army and a chosen Revolutionary Guards to be put to use in hunt and rescue operations.

Earlier, a inhabitant broadcaster had stopped all unchanging programming to uncover prayers being hold for Raisi opposite a country.

In a early hours of Monday, it showed a rescue team, wearing splendid jackets and conduct torches, huddled around a GPS device as they searched a black mountainside on feet in a blizzard.

“We are entirely acid each in. of a ubiquitous area of a crash,” state media quoted a informal army commander as saying. “The area has really cold, rainy, and misty continue conditions. The sleet is gradually branch into snow.”

The White House pronounced US President Joe Biden had been briefed on reports about a crash. China pronounced it was deeply concerned. The European Union offering puncture satellite mapping technology.

Hardliner, probable inheritor to Khamenei

The pile-up comes during a time of flourishing gainsay within Iran over an array of political, amicable and mercantile crises. Iran’s ecclesiastic rulers face general vigour over Tehran’s doubtful arch programme and a deepening troops ties with Russia during a fight in Ukraine.

Since Iran’s fan Hamas pounded Israel on Oct. 7, inspiring Israel’s attack on Gaza, conflagrations involving Iran-aligned groups have erupted via a Middle East.

In Iran’s twin domestic system, separate between a ecclesiastic investiture and a government, it is Raisi’s 85-year-old coach Khamenei, autarchic personality given 1989, who binds decision-making energy on all vital policies.

For years many have seen Raisi as a clever contender to attain Khamenei, who has permitted Raisi’s categorical policies.

Raisi’s feat in a closely managed choosing in 2021 brought all branches of energy underneath a control of hardliners, after 8 years when a presidency had been hold by pragmatist Hassan Rouhani and a arch understanding negotiated with powers including Washington.

However, Raisi’s station might have been dented by widespread protests opposite ecclesiastic order and a disaster to spin around Iran’s economy, hamstrung by Western sanctions.

Raisi had been during a Azerbaijani limit on Sunday to establish a Qiz-Qalasi Dam, a corner project. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, who pronounced he had bid a “friendly farewell” to Raisi progressing in a day, offering assistance in a rescue.