Helicopter carrying Iran’s President Raisi crashes in mountains

A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister crashed on Sunday as it was crossing mountain terrain in heavy fog, an Iranian official told Reuters.

According to the official, rescuers were making their way to the site of the incident.

The official said the lives of Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian were “at risk following the helicopter crash”, which happened on the way back from a visit to Iran’s border with Azerbaijan.

“We are still hopeful but information coming from the crash site is very concerning,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The bad weather was complicating rescue efforts, the state news agency IRNA reported. The chief of staff of Iran’s army ordered all the resources of the army and the elite Revolutionary Guard to be put to use in the search and rescue operations.

This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is monitoring, with concern and hope, the fate of the aircraft carrying the Islamic Republic of Iran President H.E. Ibrahim Raisi; Iranian Minister, Mr. Hossein Amir Abdullahian and their companions, and hopes that the rescue team would succeed in locating President Raisi, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan stands by the government and people of its brotherly and neighboring country in these hard times and hopes that no untoward incident has happened, the IEA stated.