By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
TEHRAN (Worthy News) – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has died in a helicopter crash alongside foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iranian state media confirmed Monday.
The pair were already feared dead after the crash in a mountainous area in the province of East Azerbaijan, but it took hours before the media officially confirmed their passing.
State television had already interrupted its regular programming, which showed people praying across the Islamic Republic.
No immediate cause was given for the crash by state-run Press TV and other media. The helicopter came down amid foggy conditions on Sunday as the president returned from a trip to neighboring Azerbaijan to inaugurate a dam.
The helicopter the officials were flying in was a Bell 212 acquired by the Iranian military in the 1970s, during the last years of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s reign, Worthy News learned.
The governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, the representative of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution to East Azarbaijan province, and bodyguards were also on board, the state-run Irna news agency reported.
State television published the last known public footage of the president in the helicopter before it crashed on the border of Azerbaijani exclave Nakhchivan, some 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of Iran’s capital Tehran.
DELICATE TIME
The crash came at a delicate time after Iran attacked Israel with hundreds of drones and missiles last month and supports groups attacking the Jewish nation.
It also raised questions about Iran’s controversial nuclear program.
Raisi, 63, became president in what critics view as a historically uncompetitive election in 2021.
Previously the country’s chief justice, he oversaw intensified repression of dissent when hundreds died in anti-government protests and up to 20,000 were detained, human rights monitors say.
More than 100 of them are facing death sentences, and numerous demonstrators have already been executed, according to rights activists.
His foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, 60, was a hard-liner close to the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard who confronted the West. He also oversaw indirect talks with the U.S. over the country’s nuclear program.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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