A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has suffered a “hard landing”, Iranian state media reported without elaborating.
Some began urging the public to pray for Raisi and the others on board as rescue crews sped through a misty, rural forest in East Azerbaijan or in the village of Uzi where his helicopter was believed to be, the AP reported.
Traveling with Raisi were Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province and other officials and bodyguards, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
One local government official used the word “crash” to describe the incident, but he acknowledged to an Iranian newspaper that he had yet to reach the site himself.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said in comments aired on state TV: “The esteemed president and company were on their way back aboard some helicopters and one of the helicopters was forced to make a hard landing due to the bad weather and fog, […] Various rescue teams are on their way to the region but because of the poor weather and fogginess it might take time for them to reach the helicopter.”
Rescuers were attempting to reach the site, state TV said, but had been hampered by poor weather conditions.
Raisi had been on the border with Azerbaijan early Sunday to inaugurate a dam with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev. The dam is the third built by the two nations on the Aras River, despite increasingly strained relations between Iran and Azerbaijan (largely due to Azerbaijan’s support of Israel, and ncluding over a gun attack on Azerbaijan’s Embassy in Tehran in 2023)
Iran flies a variety of helicopters in the country, but international sanctions make it difficult to obtain parts for them. Its military air fleet also largely dates back to before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Under theocratic hardliner Raisi, (who is sanctioned by the USA over his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 in the Iran-Iraq war), Iran enriches uranium at nearly weapons-grade levels and hampers international inspections.
Iran has armed Russia in its war on Ukraine, as well as launched a massive drone-and-missile attack on Israel amid its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It also has continued arming proxy groups in the Mideast, like the Houthi rebels and Hezbollah.
