Following an hours-long search throughout a foggy, hilly area of the country's northwest, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the foreign minister, and other individuals were discovered dead at the scene of a helicopter accident on Monday, according to official television. 63 was Raisi's age, according to the AP. The collision in Iran's East Azerbaijan region had no apparent explanation, according to State TV. Hossein Amirabdollahian, a 60-year-old Iranian foreign minister, was among the deceased. Along with Raisi were several officials and bodyguards, including the governor of the province of East Azerbaijan in Iran, according to the state-run news agency IRNA.
Turkish officials published what they said was drone video early on Monday morning, depicting what seemed to be a wildfire in the woods that they "suspected to be wreckage of helicopter." The fire was located on a steep mountainside about 12 miles south of the border between Azerbaijan and Iran, according to the locations shown in the video. Early on Monday, the IRNA posted footage that seemed to be the accident scene, which was located across a steep valley in a range of green mountains, according to the agency. Speaking in the Azeri dialect used there, the soldiers said, "There it is, we found it."
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, emphasized that the government's operations will carry on as usual. In the event of the president's death, the Iranian constitution provides that the first vice president assumes the presidency with Khamenei's approval and that a new presidential election would be held within 50 days. In Raisi's absence, first vice president Mohammad Mokhber had already started fielding calls from authorities and other nations, according to state media.
Turkish officials published what they said was drone video early on Monday morning, depicting what seemed to be a wildfire in the woods that they "suspected to be wreckage of helicopter." The fire was located on a steep mountainside about 12 miles south of the border between Azerbaijan and Iran, according to the locations shown in the video. Early on Monday, the IRNA posted footage that seemed to be the accident scene, which was located across a steep valley in a range of green mountains, according to the agency. Speaking in the Azeri dialect used there, the soldiers said, "There it is, we found it."
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, emphasized that the government's operations will carry on as usual. In the event of the president's death, the Iranian constitution provides that the first vice president assumes the presidency with Khamenei's approval and that a new presidential election would be held within 50 days. In Raisi's absence, first vice president Mohammad Mokhber had already started fielding calls from authorities and other nations, according to state media.
