May 19 (UPI) — A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday suffered a crash landing, according to state-run media.
Raisi’s condition was uncertain, and at least 40 rescue teams were deployed and fighting heavy fog in the mountainous area to reach the site, according to state media.
The helicopter was flying over Iran’s East Azerbaijan province as Raisi was returning from a visit to Azerbaijan, where he inaugurated a dam on the Aras river with Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev.
Iranian Minister of Health Bahram Eynollahi said the rescue teams have set up emergency treatment facilities in the area where the crash presumably happened.
“[A] number of people with the president have managed to make telephone calls, and this has raised hope that this accident may not have any casualties,” the Tasnim new agency reported.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, East Azerbaijan Gov. Malik Rahmati and Raisi’s security detail also were in the helicopter.
Raisi was re-elected president of Iran in 2021, in an election widely regarded as influenced by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In the event of Raisi’s death, the presidency would pass to Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, with Khamenei’s approval. A new president must be elected within 50 days.
Most of the Iranian military’s helicopters date to before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and international sanctions make it difficult for the government to acquire parts for them.
Raisi, himself, is under U.S. sanctions for his involvement in the 1988 mass executions of political prisoners after the Iran-Iraq war.
