Iran president helicopter crash: Ebrahim Raisi and foreign minister have died, state TV says – live updates | Iran

Iranian state-run television is reporting that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has died in a helicopter crash alongside foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

The pair were confirmed dead after the crash in a mountainous area in the province of East Azerbaijan, Press TV reported, without citing a source. The report follows similar reports from other Iranian media including the Mehr and Tasnim news agencies as well as the Reuters news agency.

No immediate cause was given for the crash, which took place amid foggy conditions on Sunday as the president was returning from a trip to neighbouring Azerbaijan to inaugurate a dam.

The governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province and the representative of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution to East Azarbaijan province as well as bodyguards were also on board, the state-run Irna news agency reported.

Some media are reporting that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian died when their helicopter crashed, but there has been no official confirmation as yet.

The two were killed when the helicopter crashed on a mountain in heavy fog in the province of East Azerbaijan, a senior Iranian official told Reuters. He asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject, the wire reported.

“President Raisi, the foreign minister and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash,” Reuters quoted him as saying.

Iran’s Mehr news agency meanwhile reported that all passengers on board “were martyred”.

It said others on board included the governor of East Azerbaijan, Malek Rahmati, as well as Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem, the representative of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution to East Azarbaijan province. Several other people were also on board, Mehr reported.

Patrick Wintour

The helicopter crash comes just as Iran’s relations with Israel reach a new pitch of danger.

Last month the two countries exchanged fire, sparked by an Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, and more broadly by Iran’s support for proxy groups willing to fight Israel, including Hamas and Hezbollah.

Any new president will have to make big decisions over Iran’s nuclear programme.

On 9 May, Kamal Kharrazi, the supreme leader’s foreign policy advisor and former Iranian foreign minister, said Iran will consider a doctrinal shift to nuclear deterrence if Israel attacks what Iran says are civilian nuclear sites.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN nuclear inspectorate the IAEA, warned Iran to end the loose talk about developing a nuclear weapon, saying it was disturbing.

Reuters is now carrying the full quote from the head of Iran’s Red Crescent, Pir Hossein Kolivand. He told state TV:

With the discovery of the crash site, no signs of life have been detected among the helicopter’s passengers.

Iranian state TV said images from the site showed the helicopter had crashed into a mountain peak, according to Reuters.

Images published by state media including the Fars news agency shared drone images of what appeared to be the burnt out wreckage of the helicopter.

Iranian state television is reporting that there is “no sign of life” at the helicopter crash site, according to Associated Press and Reuters.

Reuters said the head of the Red Crescent, Pir Hossein Kolivand, had told state TV there was no sign of life at the scene.

The site was across a steep valley and rescuers had yet to reach it, state media reported.

An Iranian official also told Reuters that the helicopter carrying the president was completely burned and that expectations are low that he has survived the crash.

There has been no official statement from the Iranian government yet.

Patrick Wintour

If Raisi has died it will add to the sense of a country already in political transition. A new hardline parliament was only just elected on 1 March in which turnout for some of the elections fell below 10%, and was overall presented as reaching a nationwide turnout of only41% – a record low.

Reformist or moderate politicians were either disqualified or soundly beaten leaving a new and, as yet, untested division in parliament between traditional hardliners and an ultra-conservative group known as Paydari or the Steadfastness Front.

The effective exclusion of reformists from political participation in parliament for the first time since 1979 adds to the sense of a country in uncharted waters.

The cumulative disruption also comes at a time when Iran can ill afford such uncertainty as it faces western challenges over its nuclear programme, a dire economy and tense relations with other Middle Eastern states, especially with regard to relations with Israel and the US.

The possible loss of Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the foreign affairs minister, in the helicopter crash only adds to a sense of instability for a country that prided itself on control and predictability. His most likely successor is his deputy, Ali Bagheri, but hardliners may regard him as too willing to negotiate with the west over Iran’s nuclear programme.

Although Iran has not lost a president in office since the revolution in 1979, the country has a clear formal system for succession in which the first vice-president – currently Mohammad Mokhber – takes charge.

Few regard Mokhber, a banker and former deputy governor of the Khuzestan province, as presidential material. A new president should be elected within 50 days, giving the supreme leader and his entourage relatively little time to select someone that will not only become president at such a critical time, but also will be in a strong position succeed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself.

The immediate challenge of any new leader would be to control not just internal dissent, but the factional demands within the country to take a tougher line with the west and draw closer to Russia and China.

The wreckage of the helicopter carrying President Raisi has been sighted, the head of the Iranian Red Crescent has told Iranian state television.

Pir Hossein Kolivand said rescue teams were on their way to the helicopter and could see it from about two kilometres away, according to Associated Press.

“We can see the wreckage and the situation does not look good,” Reuters quoted Kolivand as saying.

The news came shortly after a Turkish drone reportedly spotted a heat source which authorities believed to be the wreckage of the helicopter. The Turkish news agency Anadolu said the coordinates had been shared with Iranian authorities and the Red Crescent said it was sending its teams to the location.