Rescue teams searched for hours for the crashed helicopter with the President and Foreign Minister on board. Now the government’s fears appear to be confirmed.
Rescue workers found no signs of survivors at the crash site of the presidential helicopter in Iran. Iranian state television reported this in the morning. There was initially no official confirmation of the whereabouts of the nine occupants of the helicopter in which President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hussein Amirabdollahian had also flown.
The state news agency Irna published images taken by a drone showing debris from a completely destroyed helicopter on a slope. The head of the Iranian Red Crescent, Pir-Hussein Kuliwand, had previously described the situation as grim. Further details were initially not known.
President Raisi was returning with Foreign Minister Amirabdollahian from a meeting with the President of neighboring Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, when their helicopter went missing in the northwest of the country on Sunday afternoon. Dozens of rescue teams continued to search for the helicopter and its nine occupants in difficult weather conditions in the mountainous terrain after dark.
If the two statesmen were killed, the consequences would be difficult to predict. However, the Islamic Republic is likely to plunge into a serious crisis. Iran’s religious leader Ali Khamenei, who as the most powerful man in the state has the final say on all strategic issues, assured that evening that even in the worst case scenario, all scenarios were taken into account. He prayed for the return of his protégé Raisis, who was already being discussed as a potential successor to the 85-year-old.
Source: Stern
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