(VOVWORLD) -President Ebrahim Raisi and his entourage, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, died in a helicopter crash in Iran’s northwest region.
 Photo of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi delivering an annual speech in Tehran on March 20, 2024 (Photo: AFP/VNA) |
The information was confirmed by Vice President Mohsen Mansouri and Iranian state agencies on Monday, after many hours of searching at the crash site.
On Sunday, the helicopter carrying President Raisi and his entourage suddenly lost contact while flying from Khoda Afarin, where Mr. Raisi attended the inauguration of a dam with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, to Tabriz Province to attend the inauguration of a petrochemical complex.
Iranians mourned their president’s death. One of the mourners said: “This is sad news for me and many other citizens. He is the President elected by the people. He was very active and closely followed every development. We are all grieving.”
“This is truly a great loss. Some work will be delayed. Hopefully everything will gradually come under control.”
“We knew about the incident yesterday and today when the news was confirmed, we truly felt like we had lost an important source of support.”
The leaders of the UAE, Qatar, Turkey, India, Russia, and China, have expressed their condolences. Lebanon announced three days of national mourning starting on May 20th to pay tribute to Mr. Raisi.
President of the European Council, Charles Michel, sent his condolences and said Europe is ready to help Iran create satellite maps to investigate the accident.
The White House said US President Joe Biden had been briefed on the incident but had not yet responded. Israeli officials said that their country was not involved in the incident.