Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi killed in helicopter crash: What we know so far | BBC News

we start with breaking news from Iran where State media says that President RI and the foreign minister Hussein air Abdullah hian died when their helicopter crashed on Sunday the wreckage has been located and there are no survivors among those who were on board the search took place in a mountainous area in Northwestern Iran near T Mr RI was returning from a visit to aaban where he'd been discussing cooperation over dams and Water Supplies the helicopter had been one of three flying together this is it taking off to return to Iran the other two reached their destination safely but the alarm was raised on Sunday when Iran's interior Minister said the president's aircraft had experienced a hard landing and communication had been lost several countries offered to help in the search which was hampered by bad weather as you can see from these pictures issued by the aaban red crant Society overnight turkey launched a drone to search for the missing helicopter this map tracks its progress you can see where it concentrated its search in the early hours of the morning turkey said it had identified a source of heat which is suspected to be the wreckage of a helicopter carrying Iran's president RI it said it had shared the coordinates with the Iranian teams then these pictures emerged a short while ago these are pictures taken by a drone of the crash scene you can just see on the laptop screen the wreckage of the helicopter well with me now is Pam gabardi from BBC Persian hi Pam good to see you and this accident this crash happened uh last night in Iran and since then there was speculation about whether or not there would be any survivors and Confirmation in the last couple of hours that the president and foreign minister have been killed what are the authorities in Iran saying so the authorities announced that they found as you said they first found the wreckage and they immediately said that there is no sign of life around this wreckage and they said that they've got only less than 2 kilm to reach this uh helicopter and they're they were going to make it there within a few hours but the efforts to find this helicopter took uh over all the night as you said it was hampered by the bad weather first it was foggy that is believed to be the reason for the crash and then it turned into rainy weather and over the night the temperature fell and it started snowing but Iranian red crescent was not able to alone to to to find the president so they asked help from the Turkish and the Russians apparently the Turkish drones played a really key role in finding the wreckage of the helicopter overnight and trying to detect where it has fallen so tell us about who the president was and what his role is in Iran and what his death will mean for the country um president Ibrahim REI was a totally different president compared to his predecessors because for example Rohani was you know they all had their disagreements with uh the Iranian supreme leader who's at the Helm of the the politics in Iran he holds most of the power uh ibraim RI was considered to be his prote he was a yes man he was he did not dis had any disagreements with the Iranian president so and his presidency is one of the most short-lived presidencies uh he did not even reach make it to the third year and uh he started his uh he he he came to power when he was just an 18-year-old in the Judiciary System that later on became known as h a kind of Committee of death because they issued a lot of death sentences to back in the 80s uh to many Iranian dissidents and that's why uh many human rights organization when he came to uh into 2022 when he became a president many uh human rights organization including Amnesty International asked for investigations uh for him uh about uh crimes against humanity so and then he became the custodian of Imam rza's Shrine in mashad that the importance of that is that that is where the money and the power is so he uh reached the the source of money and power at the very young age and then he became the president few years ago but like I said he was considered to be the prote of ayat a person who listens to him who uh obeys the orders and who does not disagree with the uh commander-in-chief what do you think his death could mean within Iran given the protest the increasing number of protests we've seen there over the past few years against the authoritarian regime could they have any impact that that's an important question because uh the the reactions are divided obviously the Iranian uh the supporters of the regime yes last night for example they went under the streets of tan holding prayers for him but those are the people who support the regime and that is the tiny major um uh minority and how do we know that because just a week ago there was an election in in in Iran uh a parliamentary election and some of the candidates got it to the uh Parliament with only 3% of the votes that is how unpopular the regime has become on the other side we've got people on social media especially those who've lost their eyes their limbs and their family members during the protests just over a year ago and those people you see that they're posting they're celebrating they're cheering drink clinking drinks celebrating his death on social media so these are the two different reactions to his death so far the president and the foreign minister killed in this helicopter crash given that Iranian proxies are operating all over the Middle East not least of course Hamas in Gaza uh Hezbollah in Lebanon the houthis in Yemen uh and you have made clear that it is the iol of the supreme leader who is the key decision maker but what impact do you think if any their deaths could have on uh the regional conflict uh minimal uh apparently minimal impact because like I said the commander-in chief is ayat he is the one who even chooses almost recommends as they say the foreign minister so those are usually the the the proxies that you mentioned are controlled by Iran's revolutionary guard and that is a totally different branch controlled by and the president has no role in that and uh it's important to understand also that the difference between President re and his predecessors was that he almost turned presidency into a ceremonial role and he did not exert any power he did not disagree uh even in foreign policy for example the uh ex president Rohani had a totally different understanding of foreign policy he wanted to reconcile with the west and he there was a struggle of power within the Iranian politics but with RI they we did not see any any sign of that so the and like you said the the the Proxes around the region their controlable revolutionary guard so that is not going to be impacted so now there will need to be elections what within 50 daysin days do you expect a continuation then of another candidate to be chosen and inevitably voted in um who is a key Ally and supporter and an actual proxy of the ayatolla definitely because the signs that we've seen over the past two three years is that Iran has a body that they have to approve all the candidates and those that body has been disapproving disqualifying all the candidates all for the presidency and also for the parliament so it shows that Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah K most of the analysts believe that he's preparing the ground for the transition after his death to the next uh supreme leader we do not know who that person might be but we know that he's preparing the ground for that transition and for that transition to happen smoothly they need a person who is completely loyal and faithful to the P to the commander-in chief okay Pam thank you very much for your expertise your analysis thank you well we do have a live page on our website following all of these developments around this helicopter crash involving the president of Iran and foreign minister just head to bbc.co.uk or go to the BBC News app

Channel: BBC News

Views: 651,691

Keywords: bbc, bbc news, news, world news, breaking news, us news, world, america, usa, usa news, india news

Id: eUcfg4A42DE

Length: 8min 20sec (500 seconds)

Published: Mon May 20 2024