Srinagar, May 20 : Ebrahim Raisi, the eighth president of Iran, has been confirmed dead after a helicopter carrying him and his entourage crashed in Varzaqan region in East Azarbaijan Province, northwest of the country.
Reports sals that Raisi’s helicopter, along with two more copters, was en route to Tabriz City on Sunday after he inaugurated Qiz Qalasi Dam at the border with the Azerbaijan Republic earlier in the day.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, East Azarbaijan Province’s Governor Malek Rahmati, and Mehdi Mousavi, the head of Raisi’s guard team were on board the crashed aircraft as well.
Mohammad Ali Al-e-Hashem, the Supreme Leader’s representative in the province also accompanied them.
Local officials present at the crash site have confirmed the death of Raisi and his accompanying team.
Ebrahim Raisi, 64, was born in the holy city of Mashhad. He was elected president in 2021. Before that, he served as the judiciary chief, the general prosecutor and the vice-chairman of the Assembly of Experts.
The incident happened on Sunday in Dizmar forest between the cities of Varzaqan and Jolfa in East Azerbaijan province as the president was returning from an event to inaugurate a dam with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.
