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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suffered a \u201chard landing\u201d on Sunday, Iranian state media reported, without elaborating. Some began urging the public to pray for Raisi and the others on board as rescue crews sped through a misty, rural forest where his helicopter was believed to be.<\/p>\n
Raisi was traveling in Iran\u2019s East Azerbaijan province. State TV said the incident happened near Jolfa, a city on the border with with the nation of Azerbaijan, some 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran. Later, the TV put it farther east near the village of Uzi, but details remained contradictory.<\/p>\n
Traveling with Raisi were Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran\u2019s East Azerbaijan province and other officials and bodyguards, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. One local government official used the word \u201ccrash\u201d to describe the incident, but he acknowledged to an Iranian newspaper that he had yet to reach the site himself.<\/p>\n
Neither IRNA nor state TV offered any information on Raisi\u2019s condition. However, hard-liners urged the public to pray for him. State TV later aired images of the faithful praying at Imam Reza Shrine in the city of Mashhad, one of Shiite Islam\u2019s holiest sites, as well as in Qom and other locations across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe esteemed president and company were on their way back aboard some helicopters and one of the helicopters was forced to make a hard landing due to the bad weather and fog,\u201d Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said in comments aired on state TV. \u201cVarious rescue teams are on their way to the region but because of the poor weather and fogginess it might take time for them to reach the helicopter.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThe region is a bit (rugged) and it\u2019s difficult to make contact. We are waiting for rescue teams to reach the landing site and give us more information.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rescuers were attempting to reach the site, state TV said, but had been hampered by poor weather conditions. There had been heavy rain and fog reported with some wind. IRNA called the area a \u201cforest\u201d and the region is known to be mountainous as well. State TV aired images of SUVs racing through a wooded area.<\/p>\n
A rescue helicopter tried to reach the area where authorities believe Raisi\u2019s helicopter was, but it couldn\u2019t land due to the heavy mist, emergency services spokesman Babak Yektaparast told IRNA.<\/p>\n
Raisi had been on the border with Azerbaijan early Sunday to inaugurate a dam with Azerbaijan\u2019s President Ilham Aliyev. The dam is the third one that the two nations built on the Aras River. The visit came despite chilly relations between the two nations, including over a gun attack on Azerbaijan\u2019s Embassy in Tehran in 2023, and Azerbaijan\u2019s diplomatic relations with Israel, which Iran\u2019s Shiite theocracy views as its main enemy in the region.<\/p>\n
Iran flies a variety of helicopters in the country, but international sanctions make it difficult to obtain parts for them. Its military air fleet also largely dates back to before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.<\/p>\n
Raisi, 63, is a hard-liner who formerly led the country\u2019s judiciary. He is viewed as a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some analysts have suggested he could replace the 85-year-old leader after his death or resignation from the role.<\/p>\n
Raisi won Iran\u2019s 2021 presidential election, a vote that saw the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic\u2019s history. Raisi is sanctioned by the U.S. in part over his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 at the end of the bloody Iran-Iraq war.<\/p>\n
Under Raisi, Iran now enriches uranium at nearly weapons-grade levels and hampers international inspections. Iran has armed Russia in its war on Ukraine, as well as launched a massive drone-and-missile attack on Israel amid its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It also has continued arming proxy groups in the Mideast, like Yemen\u2019s Houthi rebels and Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah.<\/p>\n
The U.S. State Department said it was \u201cclosely following reports of a possible hard landing of a helicopter in Iran carrying the Iranian president and foreign minister.\u201d<\/p>\n
It added: \u201cWe have no further comment at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suffered a \u201chard landing\u201d on Sunday, Iranian state media reported, without elaborating. Some began urging the public to pray for Raisi and the others on board as rescue crews sped through a misty, rural forest where his helicopter was believed to be. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-240684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-national"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}