Iran has confirmed that the president was onboard the helicopter along with foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian as well as two senior east Azerbaijan leaders.
Rescuers are trying to reach the site of the “incident”, state television reported. There was no immediate details on what happened to the chopper.
Iran’s hard-line President has long been seen as a protégé to Iran’s supreme leader and a potential successor for his position within the country’s Shiite theocracy.
Reports of the “hard landing” of the chopper carrying Raisi have brought new attention to the leader, who already faces sanctions from the US and other nations over his involvement in the mass execution of prisoners in 1988.
Who is Ebrahim Raisi?
Ebrahim Raisi has served as a prosecutor for the majority of his career. In 2019, Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei named Raisi as chief justice. This appointment raised human rights concerns on account of his links to the mass execution of political prisoners in 1988 post the Iran-Iraq war.
Amnesty International pointed out that the then-deputy prosecutor of Tehran served as a member of the “death commission”. Raisi has been identified as one of the four appointed judges responsible for the death sentences of 5,000 prisoners.
On the contrary, the 60-year-old introduce himself as the best individual to battle corruption and tackle Iran’s financial issues.
Raisi is viewed as a protégé of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some analysts suggested that he could have replaced the 85-year-old leader after his death or resignation from the role.
Won presidential poll in 2021
Raisi ran unsuccessfully for president in 2017 against Hassan Rouhani, the relatively moderate cleric who as president reached Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
In 2021, Raisi ran again in an election that saw all of his potentially prominent opponents barred for running under Iran’s vetting system. He swept nearly 62% of the 28.9 million votes, the lowest turnout by percentage in the Islamic Republic’s history. Millions stayed home and others voided ballots.
What Ebrahim Raisi’s rule mean for Iran and the world?
Raisi has vowed to ease unemployment and work after lifting sanctions, especially on oil and shipping, imposed by America back in 2018. These sanctions are believed to have added to monetary hardship for Iranians.
The 2015 nuclear deal with the P5 (five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) offered Iran some relief from western sanctions on condition that the country will limit its nuclear production and activities. But in 2018, former US president Donald Trump stepped off the deal, which led to the re-imposition of sanctions on Iran’s trade business.
The Middle Eastern country retaliated by resuming nuclear operations. Talks of restoring the nuclear deal are ongoing, with US president Joe Biden reluctant to lift sanctions.
Raisi also supported attacking Israel in a massive assault in April that saw over 300 drones and missiles fired at the country in response for a suspected Israeli attack that killed Iranian generals at the country’s embassy compound in Damascus, Syria – itself a widening of a yearslong shadow war between the two countries.
The Iranian president also backed the country’s security services as they cracked down on all dissent, including in the aftermath of the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini and the nationwide protests that followed.
The months-long security crackdown killed more than 500 people and saw over 22,000 detained. In March, a United Nations investigative panel found that Iran was responsible for the “physical violence” that led to Amini’s death after her arrest for not wearing a hijab, or headscarf, to the liking of authorities.
(With AP inputs)