BEIRUT (AP) — The helicopter crash that killed Iran’s president and foreign minister has sent shockwaves through the region.
Iranian state media said on Monday that President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, and others were found dead at the site after an hours-long search through a foggy, mountainous area in the country’s northwest.
Here’s what we know so far.
WHO WAS ON BOARD THE HELICOPTER AND WHERE ARE THEY GOING?
According to state news agency IRNA, the helicopter was carrying Raisi, Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province and other officials and bodyguards.
Raisi returned on Sunday after traveling to Iran’s border with Azerbaijan to inaugurate a dam along with the Azerbaijani border. President Ilham Aliyev when the crash occurred in the Dizmar Forest in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, under circumstances that remain unclear.
How did the search go?
Iranian officials have said the mountainous, forested terrain and heavy fog hampered search and rescue operations, which began on Sunday. Iranian Red Crescent President Pir-Hossein Koulivand said 40 search teams were on the ground despite “challenging weather conditions.”
Due to the bad weather, it was “impossible to conduct an aerial search” via drones, Koulivand said, according to IRNA.
HOW WAS THE CRASH SITE FOUND?
On Monday morning, Turkish authorities released what they described as drone footage showing what appeared to be a fire in the wilderness that they “suspect was a helicopter wreckage.” The coordinates in the images place the fire about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of the Azerbaijan-Iran border, on the side of a steep mountain.
Images released by IRNA showed what the agency described as the crash site, across a steep valley in a verdant mountain range. Soldiers speaking in the local Azerbaijani language said: “There it is, we found it.” Shortly afterwards, state television reported in scrolling text on the screen: “There is no sign of life from the people on board.”
HOW WILL RAISI’S DEATH AFFECT IRAN?
Raisi was seen as a protégé of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a potential successor to his position within the country’s Shiite theocracy.
Under Iran’s constitution, if a president dies, the country’s first vice president – in this case Mohammad Mokhber – would become president. Khamenei has publicly assured the Iranians that there would be “no disruption to the country’s activities” as a result of the crash.
WHAT IS THE INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE?
After news of the search operation first emerged, countries including Russia, Iraq and Qatar issued formal statements expressing concern about Raisi’s fate and offering to assist in the search.
Azerbaijani President Aliyev offered all necessary support. Relations between the two countries have been cool due to Azerbaijan’s diplomatic ties with Israel, Iran’s regional nemesis.
Saudi Arabia, traditionally a rival of Iran although the two countries have recently sought rapprochement, said it “supports Iran in these difficult circumstances.”
There was no immediate official response from Israel. Last month, after an Israeli attack on an Iranian consular building in Damascus that killed two Iranian generals, Tehran launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel. They were largely shot down and tensions have apparently eased since then.
