Ebrahim Raisi: Rescuers search for Iranian president’s helicopter after “forced landing”
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- Role, bbc news world
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A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi crashed in a convoy, state media reported.
According to sources, it is not clear at the moment whether the Iranian President was aboard the helicopter which suffered a forced landing.
President Raisi was traveling with the Iranian foreign minister in a convoy of three helicopters that were flying over the area.
Interior Minister Ahmed Wahidi said rescue teams were still trying to reach the scene due to difficult weather conditions.
“Things are under control and rescue teams are doing their job,” he said.
According to a journalist from the Fars news agency, dense fog is hampering the search at the site where the helicopter is believed to have landed.
He said visibility was only five meters in the hilly and forested area.
The region is located in northwestern Iran, about 50 km north of Tabriz.
According to local media, President Raisi was headed to Tabriz after returning from the border with Azerbaijan, where he inaugurated the Qiz Kalasi and Khodafarin dams.
Ahmad Alirezabegi, an Iranian MP from the city of Tabriz, told media in Tehran that rescue teams had not yet found the location of the helicopter carrying the president.
He said that the other two helicopters in the convoy landed safely.
State television broadcast images showing devotees praying for the president’s health in the holy city of Mashhad.
Who is Raisi?
The 63-year-old president of Iran is considered a hardline cleric with ultra-conservative political positions.
Raisi became a prosecutor in Tehran at just 25 and climbed the judicial career ladder before being named Iran’s attorney general in 2014.
He surprised the country by running for president for the first time in 2017, when he came in second place. In 2019, Ayatollah Khamenei installed him to the powerful post of head of the judicial system.
He was elected President in June 2021.
The head of Iranian diplomacy was also traveling in the helicopter. Hossein Amir-AbdullahianThe protagonist of constant negotiations with allies and rivals since the beginning of Israel’s war in Gaza in October.
Since Raisi became president, Abdallahian has been the envoy to negotiate to avoid Iran’s isolation under international sanctions.
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