Iran’s president Raisi and Foreign Minister Abdollahian killed in helicopter crash

[Logical]

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1792176650127315248

A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suffered a “hard landing” on Sunday, Iranian state television reported, without immediately elaborating.

Raisi was traveling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. State TV described the area of the incident happening as being near Jolfa, a city on the border with with the nation of Azerbaijan, some 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Raisi had been in Azerbaijan early Sunday to inaugurate a dam with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev. The dam is the third one that the two nations built on the Aras River.

UPDATE: The crash site and the bodies has been found.

[Rubensim]

So does this mean Iran president just died in a helicopter crash?

[TheTide]

Two national leaders (not necessarily in terms of power) have had (at the very least) a brush with death in a matter of days.

[Torrain]

What has been confirmed so far, by the AP or FT:

• The President was in the Iranian region of East Azerbaijan, and was meeting with the President of Azerbaijan to inspect a dam - an attempt to improve the reasonably frosty relationship they've developed.
• The Iranian convoy contained three helicoptors, two of which have returned safely.
• The Associated Press reports the regime lost contact with the lone helicoptor several hours ago - no confirmation of any injuries or fatalities yet.
• Regime has released footage of rescue trucks headed to the alleged crash site - but says fog and heavy rain have impeded access.
• We're now getting contradictory reports over whether the crash site has been located or not, only that it's reportedly inaccessible.

Does feel a bit like one of those moments the Soviet Union would switch all channels over to Swan Lake...

[Logical]

Other passengers onboard Raisi's helicopter include:

-Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian
-Ayatollah Al-Hashemi, Imam of Tabriz Mosque
-Governor of East Azerbaijan Province Malik Rahmati

If Raisi is indeed dead, then a Presidential election must be held within 50 days according to the constitution.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Isn’t Raisi seen as Khamenei’s likely successor?

[CumbrianLefty]

Isn’t Raisi seen as Khamenei’s likely successor?

Well, was seen.....

[Filuwaúrdjan]

A nasty piece of work, to put it mildly.

[Torrain]

Posting this as much for the visuals as the news - the fog is going to make identification/recovery incredibly challenging:
https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1792221388557676992
State media have said they expect the initial rescue team to reach the final GPS coordinates sent by the helicoptor in the next 30 minutes or so. That may be their best bet for recovery this evening - it's 19.30 at time of posting in Iran, there's not much light left today.

[Lief 🗽]

RIP, HP, may all regime officials suffer similar fates inshallah.

[lfromnj]

Interestingly Iran's first president actually survived 2 helicopter crashes.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Isn’t Raisi seen as Khamenei’s likely successor?

Well, was seen.....

While losing contact like this obviously isn't good news for Iran's predient and his party, autorotation is a thing, and helicopters have different landing options that aircrafts. (How well the Iranian military trains its pilots for emergency landings under autorotation, I have no idea.)

[CookieDamage]

Rest in Piss

[Torrain]

Per BBC Persia:

• The helicoptor has still not been found.
• Major weather system expected to bring serious rain overnight, slowing efforts.
• 3 Red Crescent rescue volunteers have gone missing in the search - this has now been denied by a spokesman for the Red Crescent

[Frodo]

Was the helicopter sabotaged by Mossad by any chance?  If we find out it resulted in the deaths of everyone on it, then well done!

[Beet]

I know there will be champagne corks going off in Washington and Tel Aviv, but this is very sad. He was the legitimate head of state on a diplomatic mission. And the world has only Iran's restraint to thank for the fact that WWIII didn't break out after the wanton attack on its embassy last month.

[Farmlands]

Was the helicopter sabotaged by Mossad by any chance?  If we find out it resulted in the deaths of everyone on it, then well done!

Looking at the heavy fog, it's likely that it was the cause of the crash, as it was with Kobe's. Hacking a nuclear facility or striking an embassy is one thing, for which Iran did retaliate, but actually killing their President and Foreign Minister would be a pure declaration of war, which Israel almost unquestionably doesn't want at the moment.

[All Along The Watchtower]

I know there will be champagne corks going off in Washington and Tel Aviv, but this is very sad. He was the legitimate head of state on a diplomatic mission. And the world has only Iran's restraint to thank for the fact that WWIII didn't break out after the wanton attack on its embassy last month.

Let’s not pretend that the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the head of anything really.

[Lief 🗽]

I know there will be champagne corks going off in Washington and Tel Aviv, but this is very sad. He was the legitimate head of state on a diplomatic mission. And the world has only Iran's restraint to thank for the fact that WWIII didn't break out after the wanton attack on its embassy last month.

It’s not sad at all. There was no possibility of WW3 breaking out and to the extent there was it’s because of the Iranian terror regime and their allies in the first place.

[Hindsight was 2020]

First Fico and now this. You know these things come in threes so hopefully a certain person in Moscow is next 👀

[Frodo]

Was the helicopter sabotaged by Mossad by any chance?  If we find out it resulted in the deaths of everyone on it, then well done!

Looking at the heavy fog, it's likely that it was the cause of the crash, as it was with Kobe. Hacking a nuclear facility or striking an embassy is one thing, for which Iran did retaliate, but actually killing their President and Foreign Minister would be a pure declaration of war, which Israel almost unquestionably doesn't want at the moment.

Alternately, Mossad probably anticipated the heavy fog and used that to shroud their sabotage with plausible deniability as you demonstrated here.  Israel has every reason for wanting these individuals dead, after all.  

[Beet]

I know there will be champagne corks going off in Washington and Tel Aviv, but this is very sad. He was the legitimate head of state on a diplomatic mission. And the world has only Iran's restraint to thank for the fact that WWIII didn't break out after the wanton attack on its embassy last month.

Let’s not pretend that the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the head of anything really.

Don't nitpick. That's just his title. Head of state, head of government. We all know he's not the most powerful but like you said, he was a leading candidate to successor and this event could have impacts on Iranian internal politics as well. It remains to be seen what.

[Farmlands]

I know there will be champagne corks going off in Washington and Tel Aviv, but this is very sad. He was the legitimate head of state on a diplomatic mission. And the world has only Iran's restraint to thank for the fact that WWIII didn't break out after the wanton attack on its embassy last month.

Let’s not pretend that the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the head of anything really.

And only about as legitimate as you can get in an election where any viable contender to Raisi was preventively disqualified for whatever arbitrary reasonings the Guardian Council could come up with.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Let’s keep the conspiratorial speculation to a minimum, please? You have the whole Internet Xtwitter etc. to do that.

[MasterJedi]

First Fico and now this. You know these things come in threes so hopefully a certain person in Moscow is next 👀

Rumors are Putin has cancer and is on his way out anyways. Once he’s gone I’m sure it’ll be a bloody time in Russia as people try to take control.