Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardliner long seen as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a helicopter crash in mountainous terrain near the Azerbaijan border, officials and state media said on Monday.

A helicopter carrying Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi takes off, near the Iran-Azerbaijan border, May 19, 2024. The helicopter with Raisi on board later crashed.
The charred wreckage of the helicopter which crashed on Sunday carrying Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian 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's death was later confirmed in a statement on social media by Vice President Mohsen Mansouri and on state television.

State TV reported that 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 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 talks with world powers.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 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.

Rescue teams fought blizzards and difficult terrain through the night to reach the wreckage in the early hours of Monday.

“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.


Earlier, the national broadcaster had stopped all regular programming to show prayers being held for Raisi across the country.


Video showed a rescue team, wearing bright jackets and head torches, huddled around a GPS device as they searched a pitch-black mountainside 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. China said it was deeply concerned. The European Union offered emergency satellite mapping technology.

The crash comes at a time of growing dissent within Iran over an array of political, social and economic crises. Iran's clerical rulers face international pressure over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme and its deepening military ties with Russia during the war in Ukraine.

Since Iran's ally Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, provoking Israel's assault on Gaza, conflagrations involving Iran-aligned groups have erupted throughout the Middle East.

In Iran's dual political system, split between the clerical establishment and the government, it is Raisi's 85-year-old mentor Khamenei, supreme leader since 1989, who holds decision-making power on all major policies.

For years many have seen Raisi as a strong contender to succeed Khamenei, who has endorsed Raisi's main policies.

Raisi's victory in a closely managed election in 2021 brought all branches of power under the control of hardliners, after eight years when the presidency had been held by pragmatist Hassan Rouhani and a nuclear deal negotiated with powers including Washington.

However, Raisi's standing may have been dented by widespread protests against clerical rule and a failure to turn around Iran's economy, hamstrung by Western sanctions.

Raisi had been at the Azerbaijani border on Sunday to inaugurate the Qiz-Qalasi Dam, a joint project. Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, who said he had bid a "friendly farewell" to Raisi earlier in the day, offered assistance in the rescue.

Me personally, I am not corrupt... So it's totally wrong to label all Nigerians corrupt

Is it up to the amount you politicians steal from the treasury?

bigdammyj:
Following...

Please is this real, does it work?

Nothing this government does will ever impress me... A thief is a thief, whether he's holding gun in bank or wearing agbada in aso rock

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Alternateme:

How can you mine Bitcoin at zero cost? You people should stop deceiving and scamming us abeg

NaijaphiliaBlog:
There are solid jobs out there, and you don't need to induce or pay anybody to assist you get one.

CHECK
www.nairaland.com/7851192/thread-job-seekers

SUBSCRIBE
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Best of luck in your job search. Expecting good news from you soon!

Thank you very much

MidasTouch15:



I work in a recruitment firm. Send your CV to limitedbrainiac@gmail.com. if any opportunity arises, I will let you know.

Ok. I will do that quickly. Thank you

Please good and well meaning Nigerians help a brother get a job and am willing to give one month salary or better we can negotiate what I will give. life has been hell. I graduated from UNN since 2014 and I studied metallurgical and materials engineering. I'm also doing my masters now in UNN to increase my chances, but I don't have any job to support my family, I just freelance any urgent 2k job I find available and it has not been easy. Please if you have any idea that can help me, I will be extremely grateful. preferably Nsukka or Enugu. But right now anywhere I am willing to relocate. plz someone help a brother.
Thank you

You people should stop this childishness. Fault Peter Obi. This is what we have been saying since. Look for anything in his life and character and fault it, and after how many years of search not one fault, you have not seen even one. What you now do is to look for other pple who have neither say nor stake in the affairs of LP and bring their stories up to use and shade LP. Are you people not jokers?

Trash talk. There were eye witnesses to prove what the boy did. Please let's stop playing with the intelligence of Nigerians. We are not fools

I repeat what I said in other threads: We have succeeded in making a mockery of Nigeria to the international community by this bizarre elections. If we don't correct these terrible actions, Nigeria will never recover from it again

I repeat what I said in other threads: We have succeeded in making a mockery of Nigeria to the international community by this bizarre elections. If we don't correct these terrible actions, Nigeria will never recover from it again

We have succeeded in making a mockery of Nigeria to the international community by this bizarre elections. If we don't correct these terrible actions, Nigeria will never recover from it again

frankson1:




How do you know I went to school and you guys don't have to always be aggressive besides, I thought everyone in the Obi train do things for free

So when I employ you to do something, do I expect you to come and do it for free? No. I still prepare your salary or allowance and if you then choose that you want to do it for free, it's your decision. From the thread, it's obvious that some of the agents did not accept the money because they came for work without having money in mind. But credibility and integrity of LP ensured that their allowances were made available. That's what we are talking about... and I'm sorry if I sounded aggressive earlier

frankson1:




From "we no dey give shishi" to transparency. Issorite

You talk like you didn't go to school. "We no dey give Shishi" means we don't give bribe. But we are not irresponsible to employ people to work for us as party agents and not pay them for their work.

Transparency in everything, that's the signature of labour party

Please keep him there o. Let all the menace we have experienced in Nigeria remain in our past

FreeStuffsNG:
Hmmm. Village Boy.

He is there to rest, he will be back in Tinubu's Lagos first thing Monday morning to get ready to watch INEC declare Asiwaju Tinubu as the winner.

By next week, Mr Obi would have lost, started preparing to return to his PDP to fight for PDP 2027 Presidential ticket and the effervescence of the Andrew Liver Salt Labouring party mob on the social media , who mostly do not have PVC, would have gone down.
check my signature for free stuffs!

Those your free stuff in your signature can choke someone to death. How can you be alive in Nigeria at a time like this and have the mouth to call Asiwaju on Nigerians?

Hey, Jesus!! Save us. In the eve of election. These people want to make sure we don't come out to vote due to fear.
But we say No!!!!!!
We have seen worse, and we survived. We will survive this too.
Nigeria must be saved.

OBIDients take courage, we are at the brink of victory.

God bless PO
God bless Datti
God bless OBIDients
God bless FRN
Amen

Gfhf

It's simple. The north will make you think they support you, but in the end they will do what's in their mind ...and the only thing in the mind of everybody now is how to get PO and Datti to Aso rock. Saturday will be a shocker, a big one

Gfhd

I know that if PO is the one on seat, this matter won't end in just condemning the killing, he must get to the root of the matter and fish out the killers. Please let's all vote him

It's the normal way of Nigeria and its politicians

Candid advice to Atiku: Nigeria Presidential seat was never made to have someone like you sitting on it. Return to your house in Dubai and take good care of your six wives. Use the loads of money you looted from Nigeria and give yourself a 'good' old age. That's the best you can ever get.

This man is finally out of the Frontline candidates

Better luck next time bro. Nigeria happens to all of us at one point or the other.