Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the country's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian have died in a helicopter crash, the country's Mehr news agency said on Monday. A senior Iranian official, requesting anonymity following the sensitivity of the development, told a foreign news agency: "President Raisi, the foreign minister and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash." Iran's Mehr news agency also confirmed that "all passengers of the helicopter" were "martyred". The chopper that carried President Raisi and Iran's foreign minister crashed on Sunday while flying through a mountainous terrain amid heavy fog in the Varzaqan region of the country's East Azerbaijan province. According to Iranian state media, bad weather caused the crash and was complicating rescue efforts in the country's northwestern region.

Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said Raisi was flying in a US-made Bell 212 helicopter. Iran Red Crescent Society chief Pir-Hossein Kolivand, in an interview to semi-official Tasnim news agency, said: "No trace of survivors has been seen after the discovery of the site of the crashed helicopter." He further revealed that rescue teams found the copter's crash site after "hours of extensive search in a mountainous region" in Iran's East Azerbaijan province. President Raisi, FM Amirabdollahian and other high officials were returning to Iran after attending an inauguration ceremony of a dam on Iran’s border with the Republic of Azerbaijan when the ill-fated chopper crashed Sunday afternoon. Following the death of the Iranian President, the Islamic Republic's First Vice-President Mohammad Mokhber is set to assume power after the the Supreme Leader's issues an approval, as per Article 131 of Iran's Constitution.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan