Iran's hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, is missing in the country's mountains after his helicopter apparently crashed near the border with Azerbaijan on Sunday. The incident has sparked a massive rescue operation in the fog-shrouded forest, as the public is urged to pray for the president and his entourage, which included Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and other officials.
Raisi, who has been instrumental in steering Iran back towards the more uncompromising beliefs of the Islamic Republic's revolutionary founders, was traveling in Iran's East Azerbaijan province when the crash occurred. State TV reported that a "hard landing" happened near Jolfa, a city on the border with Azerbaijan, some 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran. Details about the incident remained contradictory, with some officials using the word "crash" while others referred to a "hard landing" or an "incident."
The likely crash comes at a sensitive time for Iran, as the country has recently launched an unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel, enriched uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels, and faced years of mass protests against its Shiite theocracy over an ailing economy and women's rights. The moment is particularly critical as the Israel-Hamas war inflames the wider Middle East.
Raisi, born in 1960 into a clerical family in Mashhad, has long occupied important positions in Iran, including an alleged key role in the so-called Death Committee responsible for executing thousands of prisoners in the 1980s, a claim he has denied. He joined the judiciary at a young age and served as Tehran's chief prosecutor and head of the State Inspectorate Organisation before being elected to the Assembly of Experts in 2006.
After losing the 2017 presidential election to Hassan Rouhani, Raisi's profile was given a boost when Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed him as deputy chief of the Assembly of Experts in 2019. He won the 2021 presidential election, which saw the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic's history.
Under Raisi's leadership, Iran has taken an increasingly aggressive stance in foreign policy, arming Russia in its war on Ukraine, launching attacks on Israel, and continuing to support proxy groups in the Middle East. Domestically, he has faced a wave of nationwide protests triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly breaching Iran's strict Islamic dress code for women.
As rescue teams struggle to reach the crash site due to poor weather conditions and heavy fog, the Iranian public has been urged to pray for the president and his colleagues. State TV aired images of the faithful praying at holy sites across the country, while government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi acknowledged the "difficult and complicated conditions" in the search for the helicopter.
The crash has also drawn international attention, with President Joe Biden being briefed by aides on the situation, although administration officials have not learned much more than what is being reported by Iranian state media.
Raisi, who is sanctioned by the U.S. in part over his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988, is viewed as a protégé of Khamenei and a potential successor to the 85-year-old supreme leader. The outcome of the rescue operation and the fate of the president and his entourage remain uncertain, as the nation anxiously awaits further developments in this unfolding crisis.
