Breaking news: Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi confirmed dead
This morning, it was confirmed that Ebrahim Raisi, president of Iran, was killed in a helicopter accident over the weekend.
On Sunday, Raisi and other important members of state were flying over the north-western Iran region, near neighboring country Azerbaijan in inclement, foggy weather with poor visibility.
Communications were lost with the helicopter some hours before the crash was estimated to have taken place, while it was flying through the mountainous region.
The news was first reported on by Iran’s The Islamic Republic News Agency, a state-owned media service. The IRNA classified the incident as a ‘hard landing’ on Sunday evening, with search efforts underway to locate the president’s helicopter.
In the early hours of Monday morning, the IRNA confirmed that the wreckage of the chopper had been found, and no trace of any survivors seemed to remain.
Also among those presumed dead was Irani foreign minister Hossein Amir-abdollahian, as well as several of Raisi’s entourage and security detail.
Worryingly, Iran’s cabinet issued a press statement regarding the death this morning, referring to Raisi as having been ‘martyred’. Similarly, the IRNA described his passing this morning with the headline ‘martyred while serving the nation’.
This has led many to wonder if a specific nation, possibly Israel or even the US, will be blamed for the incident and lead to an escalation in the already tempestuous Middle Eastern geopolitical tensions at present.
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