Update 11:15 p.m.: CNN reports that no survivors were found at the crash site when it was finally located.
Search and rescue teams that reached the crash site of a helicopter carrying Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said they found no survivors, Iranian state news agency IRINN and semi-official news agency Mehr News reported on Monday.
Drone video shows the helicopter completely destroyed.
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 20, 2024
President of Iran is presumed to be deceased.
'The body is cold. All bodies are cold.'
'The cabin is completely burnt.'pic.twitter.com/0P9goVacpB
Fox News reports on possible ramifications of Raisi out of the picture:
Raisi has long been seen as a protégé to Iran's supreme leader and a potential successor for his position within the country's Shiite theocracy. But with Raisi potentially out of the way, Taleblu said, "the short list would have gotten even shorter."
"Another person on that shortlist, that would benefit significantly from this is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's son, Mojtaba, who right now basically wields power without accountability. And many, allege that he is interested in becoming the next supreme leader, or that he may be jockeying to become the next Supreme leader as well," Taleblu said.
Iran ultimately is run by its 85-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But as president, Raisi supported the country's enrichment of uranium up to near-weapons-grade levels, as well as it hampering international inspectors as part of its confrontation with the West.
Original story:
Iranian state TV is reporting that a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian made a "hard landing" in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province near the city of Jolfa.
"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," Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said in comments aired on state TV.
However, other Iranian sources say the copter went down while "crossing mountain terrain in heavy fog."
According to this source, the region is "remote and mountainous." At least 40 rescue crews were dispatched to the region, but thick fog is hampering the search for the downed helicopter.
“We are still hopeful but information coming from the crash site is very concerning,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The bad weather was complicating rescue efforts, the state news agency IRNA reported. The chief of staff of Iran's army ordered all the resources of the army and the elite Revolutionary Guard to be put to use in the search and rescue operations.
State TV stopped all its regular programming to show prayers being held for Raisi across the country and, in a corner of the screen, live coverage of rescue teams deployed on foot in the mountainous area in heavy fog.
“That contrast for us is a win all day long, every day of the week. Whether it’s the economy that is crushing the bank accounts of working families, the porous border, whether it’s chaos abroad—all of these ways Biden is weak and failing,” said a senior Trump adviser, Brian Hughes.
The rescue teams were expected to reach the site of the crash later on Sunday evening, state TV reported.
Raisi, 63, was elected president in 2021, and since taking office has ordered a tightening of morality laws, overseen a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests and pushed hard in nuclear talks with world powers.
Speculation on the cause of the crash is bound to be intense even if Raisi survives. But first and foremost, it should be said that Iranians are notoriously bad about maintaining their military hardware, with much of it being decades old.
I'd look at stupidity and incompetence before sabotage.
An update from Iranian TV:
“It is the right of the people and the media to be aware of the latest news about the president’s helicopter accident, but considering the coordinates of the incident site and the weather conditions, there is ‘no’ new news whatsoever until now,” Iranian government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi wrote on the social platform X. “In these moments, patience, prayer and trust in relief groups are the way forward.”
They don't sound very hopeful. If Raisi is hurt, every moment counts. If he's not rescued before morning, he's likely not going to make it.
Further updates will be posted throughout the day.
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