The accident occurred near the town of Jolfa, around 600 kilometres north-west of Tehran. An Iranian presidential helicopter was involved in an ‘accident’ on Sunday 19 May, the official media reported. According to the media, President Ebrahim Raissi was on board and his fate remains uncertain

According to the official IRNA news agency, the passengers also included the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the governor of the province and the region’s main imam.

The presidential convoy included three helicopters. The other two landed safely in Tabriz, a large city in the north-west, according to the Iranian news agency Tasnim.

According to state television, the accident occurred near Jolfa, a town close to the border with Azerbaijan, around 600 kilometres north-west of Tehran.

A search has been launched for the helicopter, but it is being complicated by ‘unfavourable weather conditions’, particularly fog, Interior Minister Ahmed Vahidi told state television. ‘It may take some time to reach the helicopter zone’, he added.

The IRNA news agency reported that ‘more than 20 rescue teams, equipped with drones and rescue dogs’, had been deployed to the scene.

Ebrahim Raissi had travelled to the province of Eastern Azerbaijan to inaugurate a dam with the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliev, on the border between the two countries.

At a joint press conference, he reaffirmed his support for the Palestinians in the conflict between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip. ‘We believe that Palestine is the number one issue in the Muslim world, and we are convinced that the people of Iran and Azerbaijan still support the people of Palestine and Gaza and hate the Zionist regime,’ he said.

Ebrahim Raissi, a 63-year-old ayatollah, was elected president in June 2021 with 72% of the vote in a ballot marked by a low turnout (less than 49%), the lowest in the history of the Islamic Republic for a presidential election. Regarded as ultraconservative, he succeeded the moderate Hassan Rohani. He gained strength after the parliamentary elections in March, the first national election since the protest movement at the end of 2022, triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini.

Born in November 1960 in Mashhad, north-east Iran, Ebrahim Raissi has worked mainly in the judiciary, as Prosecutor General of Tehran and then of the country. He is also under US sanctions for his role in the execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988, the year the Iran-Iraq war ended.