EGN NEWS DESK
A helicopter carrying President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran and his overseas minister crashed on Sunday within the nation’s mountainous northwest, in keeping with state media, deepening the turmoil that has gripped the nation on each the worldwide and home fronts in latest months.
Mr. Raisi, 63, was touring from Iran’s border with Azerbaijan to inaugurate a joint dam venture. The helicopter, carrying Mr. Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, state media reported, crashed close to town of Varzaghan round 1 p.m. native time, in unhealthy climate and thick fog.
Search and rescue groups scoured an space of tall mountains and dense forest by means of rain and fog for greater than 10 hours. At one level the authorities known as off the aerial search due to the climate, dispatching on foot troopers, elite commandos of the Revolutionary Guards and 40 rescue groups to find the crash web site.
Even effectively into the evening, state media had not but reported on casualties, or on the situation of the president or anybody else aboard. The reason for the crash was additionally unknown.
“There can be no disruption within the nation’s operation,” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated in an tackle on state TV. “Senior officers are doing their work and I’ve suggested them on the mandatory factors and all the nation’s operation will keep on easily and orderly.”
Mr. Raisi, a conservative who violently crushed dissent, is extensively seen as a potential successor to the supreme chief. The uncertainty over his destiny comes throughout a very tumultuous interval for Iran.
Its lengthy shadow conflict with Israel burst into the open after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, setting off the conflict in Gaza and a cascade of strikes and counterstrikes throughout the area.
The hostilities grew to become much more pronounced after Israel carried out airstrikes on a constructing within the Iranian Embassy complicated in Syria in April. Iran retaliated with its first direct assault on Israel after a long time of enmity, launching greater than 300 drones and missiles towards the nation, lots of which had been shot down.
Domestically, Iran can be going through widespread anger, with many residents calling for an finish to clerical rule. Corruption and sanctions have gutted the economic system, stoking frustrations.
In the final two years, the nation has witnessed a home rebellion, the Iranian foreign money plunging to a file low, water shortages intensified by local weather change and the deadliest terrorist assault because the 1979 founding of the Islamic Republic.
Source: Iranian state and semiofficial information businesses
By Charlie Smart and Lauren Leatherby
If the president dies, the vice chairman takes over and elections should organized inside 50 days, stated Ali Vaez, the Iran director of the International Crisis Group, an impartial battle prevention company.
That, he stated, can be “a serious problem for a rustic that’s within the midst of a extreme disaster of legitimacy at dwelling and daggers drawn with Israel and the United States within the area.”
Mr. Raisi is a hard-line spiritual cleric who got here of age through the nation’s Islamic revolution. Under Iran’s theocratic system, Mr. Raisi, as president, is the second strongest particular person in Iran’s political construction after the supreme chief, Mr. Khamenei.
After changing into president in 2021, Mr. Raisi consolidated energy and marginalized reformists who needed to defuse tensions with the West. He repeatedly stated that he pursued a coverage of “sturdy diplomacy,” forging nearer financial and safety ties with Russia and China.
During Mr. Raisi’s tenure, Iran continued to develop its regional affect, backing proxies throughout the Middle East which have carried out strikes towards Israel and the United States, in addition to advancing the nation’s nuclear program.
In the identical interval, Mr. Raisi oversaw a sweeping and lethal crackdown on home protesters, lots of them ladies and younger folks, who had taken to the streets towards the nation’s ruling clerics. Rights teams stated a whole bunch of protesters had been killed by the nation’s safety forces.
Mr. Raisi has been seen as one of many front-runners to succeed Mr. Khamenei as supreme chief. One of his fundamental rivals for that function is a son of Mr. Khamenei.
Despite the crash, some analysts stated they didn’t count on a serious change in Iran’s agenda overseas.
The nation’s supreme chief is chargeable for setting all the nation’s insurance policies, analysts stated, whereas the president’s energy comes from enacting these selections.
“At one degree, the result doesn’t portend a sea change in how Iran formulates and acts upon its pursuits overseas,” stated Ali Vaez, the Iran director for the International Crisis Group.
“It is the supreme chief who makes strategic selections about overseas coverage, albeit knowledgeable by the views of different key stakeholders, together with the president.”
Mr. Abdollahian, the overseas minister, has been closely concerned in regional diplomacy with Arab nations. In latest months, he had additionally met in Qatar with leaders of the militant teams backed by Iran, together with Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas, the group that led the Oct. 7 assault towards Israel.
He was additionally engaged in secret oblique talks with the United States, in February and in May, in Oman to debate defusing tensions and relieving sanctions associated to Iran’s nuclear program.
Vivian Nereim contributed reporting.
