DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suffered a “hard landing” on Sunday, Iranian state media reported, without immediately providing details. .
Raisi was traveling to Iran's East Azerbaijan province. According to state television, the incident occurred near Jolfa, a city on the border with Azerbaijan, about 600 kilometers northwest of Iran's capital Tehran.
Traveling with him were Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran's East Azerbaijan province and other officials, state news agency IRNA said. A local government official used the word “crash” to describe the incident, but admitted to an Iranian newspaper that he himself had not yet arrived at the scene.
Neither IRNA nor state television provided information about Raisi's condition.
State television said rescue teams were trying to reach the scene but were prevented by bad weather. Heavy rain and fog were reported as well as wind. IRNA called the area a “forest.”
Raisi had arrived in Azerbaijan early Sunday morning to attend the dam's inauguration ceremony with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. This dam is the third dam built by both countries on the Aras River. The visit comes at a time when relations between the two countries have cooled, including the 2023 shooting of the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran and diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Israel, which Iran's Shiite theocracy considers its main enemy in the region. It was carried out despite the fact that
Iran flies a variety of helicopters domestically, but international sanctions have made it difficult to obtain parts. The company's military aviation history largely predates his 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Raisi, 63, is a hardliner who once led the country's judiciary. He is seen as a disciple of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, and some analysts have suggested he could replace the 85-year-old leader after he dies or steps down.
Raisi won Iran's 2021 presidential election, which had the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic's history. Raisi is under sanctions from the United States for his role in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 at the end of the bloody Iran-Iraq war.
Under Raisi, Iran is now enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels, impeding international inspections. Iran has armed Russia in its war against Ukraine and launched massive drone and missile attacks against Israel during its war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It also continues to supply weapons to proxy groups in the Middle East, including Yemen's Houthi rebels and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
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Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
