Helicopter carrying Iran's president crashes in foggy, mountainous region

A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi the countrys foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday sparking a massive rescue operation in a fogshrouded forest as the public was urged to prayThe likely crash came as Iran under Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched an unprecedented droneandmissile attack on Israel last month and has enriched uranium closer than ever to weaponsgrade levelsIran has also faced years of mass protests against its Shiite theocracy over an ailing economy and womens rights making the moment that much more sensitive for Tehran and the future of the country as the IsraelHamas war inflames the wider Middle EastRaisi was traveling in Irans East Azerbaijan province State TV said what it called a hard landing happened near Jolfa a city on the border with the nation of Azerbaijan some 600 kilometers 375 miles northwest of the Iranian capital Tehran Later state TV put it farther east near the village of Uzi but details remained contradictoryTraveling with Raisi were Irans Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian the governor of Irans East Azerbaijan province and other officials and bodyguards the staterun IRNA news agency reported One local government official used the word iquestcrash but others referred to either a hard landing or an incidentNeither IRNA nor state TV offered any information on Raisis condition in the hours afterward However hardliners urged the public to pray for him State TV later aired images of the faithful praying at Imam Reza Shrine in the city of Mashhad one of Shiite Islams holiest sites as well as in Qom and other locations across the country State televisions main channel aired the prayers nonstopThe esteemed president and company were on their way back aboard some helicopters and one of the helicopters was forced to make a hard landing due to the bad weather and fog Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said in comments aired on state TVVarious rescue teams are on their way to the region but because of the poor weather and fogginess it might take time for them to reach the helicopterThe region is a bit rugged and its difficult to make contactiquest he added We are waiting for rescue teams to reach the landing site and give us more informationIRNA called the area a forest and the region is known to be mountainous as well State TV aired images of SUVs racing through a wooded area and said they were being hampered by poor weather conditions including heavy rain and windA rescue helicopter tried to reach the area where authorities believe Raisis helicopter was but it couldnt land due to the heavy mist emergency services spokesman Babak Yektaparast told IRNALong after the sun set Iranian government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi acknowledged that iquestwe are experiencing difficult and complicated conditionsiquest in the searchIt is the right of the people and the media to be aware of the latest news about the presidents helicopter accident but considering the coordinates of the incident site and the weather conditions there is no new news whatsoever until now he wrote on the social platform XIn these moments patience prayer and trust in relief groups are the way forwardRaisi had been on the border with Azerbaijan early Sunday to inaugurate a dam with Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev The dam is the third one that the two nations built on the Aras River The visit came despite chilly relations between the two nations including over a gun attack on Azerbaijans Embassy in Tehran in 2023 and Azerbaijans diplomatic relations with Israel which Irans Shiite theocracy views as its main enemy in the regionIran flies a variety of helicopters in the country but international sanctions make it difficult to obtain parts for them Its military air fleet also largely dates back to before the 1979 Islamic Revolution IRNA published images it described as Raisi taking off in what resembled a Bell 412 helicopter with a blueandwhite paint scheme previously seen in published photographsRaisi 63 is a hardliner who formerly led the countrys judiciary He is viewed as a proteacutegeacute of Khamenei and some analysts have suggested he could replace the 85yearold leader after his death or resignation from the roleRaisi won Irans 2021 presidential election a vote that saw the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republics history Raisi is sanctioned by the US in part over his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 at the end of the bloody IranIraq warUnder Raisi Iran now enriches uranium at nearly weaponsgrade levels and hampers international inspections Iran has armed Russia in its war on Ukraine as well as launched a massive droneandmissile attack on Israel amid its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip It also has continued arming proxy groups in the Mideast like Yemens Houthi rebels and Lebanons HezbollahMeanwhile mass protests in the country have raged for years The most recent involved the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini a woman who had been earlier detained over allegedly not wearing a hijab or headscarf to the liking of authorities The monthslong security crackdown that followed the demonstrations killed more than 500 people and saw over 22000 detainedIn March a United Nations investigative panel found that Iran was responsible for the physical violence that led to Aminis deathPresident Joe Biden was briefed by aides on the Iran crash but administration officials have not learned much more than what is being reported publicly by Iran state media said a senior administration official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymityThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the 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