TEHRAN: Fear and worry weighed on Iran Sunday as the Islamic Republic waited for news on the fate of President Ebrahim Raisi after his helicopter went missing in a foggy mountain area.
Thousands of Muslim faithful prayed for his safe return in mosques nationwide — including amid the minarets of 63-year-old Raisi’s hometown, the shrine city of Mashhad.
Tearful Iranians fearing the worst were also praying for Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who was with him on the helicopter, in Valiasr Square in central Tehran.
Iran has endured years of tensions and turmoil, most recently coming to the brink of war with arch-enemy Israel in a series of tit-for-tat attacks sparked by the Gaza war.
In recent times it has been shaken by waves of mass protests, while its people have endured economic pain deepened by US sanctions over its contested nuclear program.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei took to the airwaves to comfort the nation, urging Iranians to “not worry” about the leadership of the Islamic Republic, saying “There will be no disruption in the country’s work”.
One Teheran citizen, a 29-year-old journalist who only gave her name as Vakili, said she “feared” the worst and said it recalled previous tense moments in recent years.
“I hope they are okay and that they are found,” she said as a massive search effort continued for Raisi and others aboard in the mist-shrouded hills of East Azerbaijan province.
“It’s a strange feeling like we felt before with Haj Qasem Soleimani,” she said, referring to the revered Revolutionary Guards commander who was killed in a 2020 US drone strike in Baghdad.
Expressions of concern and offers to help the search effort poured in from regional powers, including Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia.
While US President Joe Biden was briefed on the situation, the European Union activated its mapping program to help in the effort to find the helicopter.
“I am deeply saddened,” said another resident of the capital, a private sector employee named Hadi. “We hope that he (Raisi) and his companions are found in good health.”
The helicopter suffered an accident as Raisi was heading to the northern city of Tabriz after he inaugurated a dam project on the border with Azerbaijan, state media said.
The presidential convoy included three helicopters, of which two landed safely but one vanished.
Poor weather conditions complicated communication with the helicopter carrying Raisi and other officials.
State media soon reported “an accident” over the province’s Jolfa region, while some officials referred to a “hard landing”.
Iranians were glued to TV screens and their smartphones for updates, as footage showed rescue teams moving up a slope through dense fog and drizzling rain, using dogs and drones.
Military personnel along with the Revolutionary Guards and police had also deployed teams to the area, said army chief-of-staff Mohammad Bagheri.
As the nation waited, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said rescue teams were dealing with a “steep and forested slope” where “visibility is very limited”.
“The rescue forces unfortunately have yet to reach the desired point,” he was quoted by Tasnim news agency as saying.
“We hope that with prayers of the dear people we reach the accident site as soon as possible.”
Rumors and speculation quickly swirled around social media in Iran over the fate of Raisi and his companions.
Vahidi urged Iranians not to trust information relayed by channels hostile to the Islamic Republic and to get their information “from state television only.”
Earlier, a helicopter carrying Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi was involved in “an accident” in poor weather conditions on Sunday, state media reported, with a search underway and no news yet on his condition.
“An accident happened to the helicopter carrying the president” in the Jofa region of the western province of East Azerbaijan, state television said.
As the night fell, search and rescue teams were looking for the crash site in darkness and amid heavy fog in the remote mountain area, state media in the Islamic Republic reported, adding that Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was also aboard the aircraft.
“The harsh weather conditions and heavy fog have made it difficult for the rescue teams to reach the accident site,” state TV said in an on-screen news alert.
Arab countries and others in the Middle East have expressed deep shock over the accident. Saudi Arabia voiced “great concern” after Iranian state media reported that a helicopter carrying President Ebrahim Raisi had gone missing, offering to help with the response.
“We affirm that the Kingdom stands by the sisterly Islamic Republic of Iran in these difficult circumstances and its readiness to provide any assistance that the Iranian agencies need,” the foreign ministry of the Gulf kingdom, a longtime rival of Iran, said in a statement.
Iranian search and rescue teams were scouring a fog-shrouded mountainside as Iranian state media said “an accident happened to the helicopter” transporting Raisi, a 63-year-old ultraconservative.
Shiite-majority Iran and Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia have long been on opposing sides of regional conflicts, including in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.
In 2016 bilateral ties were severed after attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran during protests over Riyadh’s execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
But in March 2023 the Middle East heavyweights announced a surprise rapprochement brokered by China, and they have been in relatively frequent contact in recent months as they worked to contain the war triggered in Gaza by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel.
That diplomatic outreach included the first phone call between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler, and Raisi — just five days after the war broke out — and a visit by Raisi to Riyadh in November for a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
Iraq, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Qatar have offered support and any assistance needed for the rescue efforts.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said he was “profoundly saddened” at the news of the helicopter accident involving Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, and offered “all necessary support” to the search.
“We are following the incident closely, are in contact and in coordination with the Iranian authorities and we are ready to provide all necessary support,” Erdogan posted on X, formerly Twitter.
State TV broadcast footage of an Iranian Red Crescent team walking up a slope in thick fog, as well as live footage of crowds of worshippers reciting prayers in the holy Shrine of Imam Reza in the city of Mashhad, Raisi’s hometown.
Sunday’s accident happened in the mountainous protected forest area of Dizmar near the town of Varzaghan, said the official IRNA news agency.
Raisi, 63, was visiting the province Sunday where he inaugurated a dam project together with his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliev, on the border between the two countries.
His convoy included three helicopters, and the other two had “reached their destination safely,” according to Tasnim news agency.
IRNA said the foreign minister and local officials were traveling in the same helicopter as Raisi.
The reformist Shargh Daily also reported that “the helicopter carrying the president crashed” while two other helicopters landed safely.
Later, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said one of the helicopters “made a hard landing due to bad weather conditions” and that it was “difficult to establish communication” with the aircraft.
Raisi has been president of the Islamic Republic since June 2021, succeeding the moderate Hassan Rouhani, for a term during which Iran has faced crisis and conflict.
He took the reins of a country in the grip of a deep social crisis and an economy strained by US sanctions against Tehran over its contested nuclear program.
Iran saw a wave of mass protests triggered by the death in custody of Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini in September 2022.
In March 2023, regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia signed a surprise deal that restored diplomatic relations.
The war in Gaza that began on October 7 sent regional tensions soaring again and a series of tit-for-tat escalations led to Tehran launching hundreds of missiles and rockets directly at Israel in April 2024.
In a speech following Sunday’s dam inauguration, Raisi emphasized Iran’s support for Palestinians, a centerpiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
“We believe that Palestine is the first issue of the Muslim world and we are convinced that the people of Iran and Azerbaijan always support the people of Palestine and Gaza and hate the Zionist regime,” said Raisi.
Raisi, born in 1960 in northeast Iran’s holy city of Mashhad, rose early to high office. Aged just 20, he was named prosecutor-general of Karaj next to Tehran.
He served as Tehran’s prosecutor-general from 1989 to 1994, deputy chief of the Judicial Authority for a decade from 2004, and then national prosecutor-general in 2014.
What we know about the Iranian president’s helicopter ‘accident’
Uncertainty hung over the fate of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi after state media said his helicopter had an accident on Sunday in poor weather in a western province.
Iran launched a large-scale search and rescue operation in the fog-shrouded mountain area of East Azerbaijan province.
Supreme leader Ali Khamenei said “the Iranian people should not worry” about the country and voiced hope Raisi and the others aboard would be found in good health.
Here is what we know so far.
– What happened? –
On Sunday, Iranian state television reported that the helicopter carrying Raisi had an “accident” in the Jolfa region of East Azerbaijan province amid poor weather conditions.
The accident happened in the mountainous protected forest area of Dizmar near the town of Varzaghan, said the official IRNA news agency.
Raisi had earlier inaugurated a dam project with his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, on the border between the two countries.
Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi described the accident as a “hard landing due to the weather conditions”.
Raisi’s convoy comprised three helicopters including two that landed safely in the northwestern city of Tabriz.
Vahidi said it was “difficult to establish communication” with the third helicopter which was carrying Raisi.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was also on board along with the governor of East Azerbaijan and the province’s main imam, according to IRNA news agency.
– How has Iran responded? –
Rescue teams have since been scouring the area.
More than 40 rescue teams using search dogs and drones were sent to the site, said IRNA.
Military personnel along with the Revolutionary Guards and the police have also been sent there, said the army’s chief-of-staff Mohammad Bagheri.
An Iranian Red Crescent team was seen on state TV walking up a slope in thick fog and rain.
– What would happen in the event of Raisi’s death? –
Iran’s vice-president Mohmmad Mokhber would take over presidential duties in the event of Raisi’s death, according to Iran’s constitution.
Presidential elections should be arranged within 50 days, the constitution says.