Ebraim Raisi is officially deadas Iran’s vice president Mohsen Mansouri confirmed in a post on the X platform.

“To Allah we belong and to Him we will return…” he writes characteristically confirming the death of the president of Iran

He’s dead too the country’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdolakhian, as well as everyone on board the helicopter, according to Iran’s official news agency.

Iranian state television released a still from video footage from inside the helicopter before it crashed showing President Embraer Raishi with the foreign minister.

There is “no indication” that there are survivors at the crash site of the Bell 212 helicopter, the Islamic Republic’s state television also reported, while other media reported that the 63-year-old president of the Islamic Republic, Ibrahim Raisi, who was elected in 2021, the 60-year-old foreign minister Hossein Amirabdolakhian, who also took office in 2021, and other officials on board the helicopter that crashed in a mountainous area in very bad weather on Sunday they are all dead.

Wreckage of the helicopter as reported by Iranian media

helicopter

The news that there is no sign of life was confirmed earlier by the head of the Iranian Red Crescent, Pirhusein Koulivant, speaking on Iranian state television, saying that no signs of life were detected at the place where the helicopter crashed yesterday Sunday, in the middle of dense fog in a mountainous area.

The MEHR news agency reported that “all” aboard the helicopter “were martyred.”

Iran

The helicopter crashed yesterday in a mountainous area of ​​Iran near the border with Azerbaijan amid thick fog. Since news of the helicopter broke yesterday, information has been mixed about what exactly happened. However, earlier an official of the Revolutionary Guards confirmed that a Turkish drone involved in the search, detected with a thermal camera “a source of heat and there were suspicions that it was the wreckage of the helicopter

According to the head of the Red Crescent, search and rescue teams are currently approaching the crash site.

Investigations are extremely difficult

Rescue efforts are extremely difficult as the area, which is extremely difficult to access, has difficult weather conditions with dense fog.

The chief of the general staff of the Iranian army ordered all forces of the army and the elite Revolutionary Guards to be used in search and rescue operations.

“It’s dark and it’s starting to rain, but the investigation is ongoing. “Rescue teams have reached the area…however, the rain has created mud, making the search difficult,” a local reporter told Iranian state television.

Raisi had gone to the Azerbaijan border yesterday to inaugurate the Kiz-Kalesi Dam, the largest joint water project between Iran and Azerbaijan, according to Iranian news network Press TV.

The timeline of the crash

Iranian President Raisi’s helicopter was returning from Azerbaijan when initial reports said it made an “abnormal landing”.

Neither IRNA nor state television provided information on Raisi’s condition in the following hours. However, state television interrupted its program and began broadcasting prayers while the country’s authorities called on citizens to pray. State television later broadcast images of worshipers praying at the Imam Reza Shrine in the city of Mashhad, one of Shiite Islam’s holiest sites, as well as in Qom and other locations across the country.

“The honorable president and other dignitaries were returning in helicopters, one of which was forced to make an ‘abnormal landing’ due to bad weather and fog,” Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said in comments broadcast on state television. “Several rescue teams are on their way to the area, but due to bad weather and fog it may take time for them to reach the helicopter.”

A message was posted on the Iranian president’s official Instagram account saying “Pray for me.”

After the news that the helicopter crashed, several countries rushed to help Iran in search and rescue operations.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has ordered his country’s interior ministry and relevant agencies to offer assistance in the search for the missing helicopter, according to Bassem al-Awadi, a spokesman for the Iraqi government.

Turkey’s national emergency agency said it had sent 32 rescuers and six vehicles to help with the search, although it did not specify the types of vehicles. Iran, the agency said, had requested a search and rescue helicopter with night vision capabilities.

The European Union activated its Copernicus satellite system to provide emergency mapping services to help Iranian officials gain better visibility of the area where the helicopter is believed to have crashed, according to crisis management chief Janez Lenarcic. He said the EU did so following a request for help from Iran.

And the foreign ministry of Saudi Arabia – a regional rival that restored relations with Iran last year after a seven-year period of tension – said the kingdom “stands by the sisterly Islamic Republic of Iran in these difficult circumstances and was ready to offer any assistance which the Iranian authorities need.”