By Samuel Ogunsona
The Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi, has been confirmed dead after the helicopter he was travelling in crashed in a mountainous area near the border of Azerbaijan in northwest Iran.
The Foreign Minister,
Hossein Amirabdollahian
also perished in the crash
The aircraft carrying the President and Foreign Minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, among other local officials crash landed on Sunday.
After over 12hours of the missing President, rescuers found the burned remains of the aircraft on Monday morning.
“President Raisi, the foreign minister and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash”
“all passengers of the helicopter carrying the Iranian president and foreign minister were martyred” Iran’s Mehr news agency reported.
However, one of the state TV reported that the aircraft was smashed into a mountain while investigations are still ongoing.
“there has been no official word on the cause but there was thick fog in the area at the time” the report stated.
“President Raisi’s helicopter was completely burned in the crash… unfortunately, all passengers are feared dead,”
Ebrahim Raisi succeeded Hassan Rouhani, who served eight years in office from 2013 to 2021. On May 19, 2024.
The president is expected to gain the Supreme Leader’s official approval before being sworn in by the Parliament, and the Supreme Leader has the power to dismiss the elected president if he has either been impeached by Parliament or found guilty of a constitutional violation by the Supreme Court.