On Sunday 19th May a charred wreckage of the helicopter that crashed carrying Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirbdollahim was found early on Monday after an overnight search in blizzard conditions.
‘’President Raisi, the Foreign Minister and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash ‘’ a senior Iranian official told Reuters , asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Raisi death was later confirmed in a statement on social media by the vice President Mohsen Mansouri and on state television.
‘’ The images from the site showed the aircraft slammed into a mountain peak , although there was no official word on the cause of the crash ‘’ state TV reported.
State news agency IRNA said Raisi was flying in a U.S. made Bell 212 helicopter.
Raisi 63, was elected president in 2021 and since taking office has ordered a tightening of morality laws , overseen a bloody crackdown on anti government protests and pushed hard in nuclear tasks with world powers.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a Iranian supreme leader, who holds ultimate power with a final say on foreign policy and Iran’s nuclear programme, had earlier sought to reassure Iranians saying there would be no disruption to state affairs.
‘’With the discovery of the crash site , no signs , of life have been detected among the helicopter’s passengers ‘’ the head of Iran’s Red Crescent , Pirhossein Kolivand , told state TV
video showed a rescue team , wearing bright jackets and head torches , huddled around a GPS device as they searched a pitch black mountains side on foot in a blizzard.
several countries had expressed concern and offered assistance .
The white house said U.S President Joe Biden had been briefed on reports about the crash . Chain said it was deeply concerned . The European Union offered emergency satellite mapping technology.
No official announcement of their death has yet been made.
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