Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has ‘hard landing’ in helicopter

The incident reportedly occurred as a result of dense fog in the region, which is making conditions difficult for rescue teams. The report didn’t immediately provide an update on the condition of Raisi or his entourage. 

Raisi’s air fleet consisted of three helicopters with high-ranking officials including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said.

Finding the president’s helicopter “could take time” due to difficult weather conditions, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on TV, adding several rescue teams were trying to locate the site of the incident.

Earlier on Sunday, Raisi met his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev to inaugurate a jointly developed dam on the border between the two countries. The incident occurred while Raisi was returning from Iran’s East Azerbaijan province.

Raisi, an ultraconservative cleric who won Iran’s presidential election in 2021, has been seen as a favorite to eventually succeed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. For that election he received support from the highest levels of Iran’s religious and military establishment, and put all of Iran’s state institutions and levers of power in the hands of hardliners.

His ascension came after eight years under the relative moderate Hassan Rouhani, who was central to the nuclear accord that former President Donald Trump withdrew the US from in 2018. The US exit from the deal empowered Iran’s hardliners, who were always critical of the agreement. Raisi was sanctioned in 2019 by the Trump administration, which cited his role in a deadly crackdown a decade earlier on protesters alleging vote fraud.