Iran’s cabinet holds emergency session after President Raisi’s helicopter crash

Rescuers continued to search on foot after dark for the scene of the helicopter accident, in poor weather.

A total of 65 rescue teams were involved in the search for the helicopter’s crew, including the Iranian armed forces.

According to the Tasnim news agency, the accident site has been located.

03:47

World leaders call for de-escalation after Iran launches air attack on Israel

The incident is likely to reverberate across the Middle East. Iran has spent decades supporting armed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the Palestinian territories that allow it to project power and potentially deter attacks from the United States or Israel, the sworn enemies of its 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Tensions have never been higher than they were last month, when Iran under Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel in response to an air strike on an Iranian consulate in Syria that killed two Iranian generals and five officers.

Israel, with the help of the United States, Britain, Jordan and others, intercepted nearly all the projectiles. In response, Israel apparently launched its own strike against an air defence radar system in the Iranian city of Isfahan, causing no casualties but sending an unmistakable message.

The sides have waged a shadow war of covert operations and cyberattacks for years, but the exchange of fire in April was their first direct military confrontation.

The helicopter carrying Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi takes off at the Iranian border with Azerbaijan on Sunday. Photo: IRNA / AFP

The continuing war between Israel and Hamas has drawn in other Iranian allies, with each attack and counter-attack threatening to set off a wider war.

It is a combustible mix that could be ignited by unexpected events, like a helicopter carrying top officials disappearing into a mist.

Israel has long viewed Iran as its greatest threat because of Tehran’s controversial nuclear programme, its ballistic missiles and its support for armed groups sworn to Israel’s destruction.

Iran views itself as the chief patron of Palestinian resistance to Israeli rule, and top officials for years have called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Raisi, a hardliner viewed as a possible successor of Khamenei, chastised Israel last month, saying “the Zionist Israeli regime has been committing oppression against the people of Palestine for 75 years”.

“First of all we have to expel the usurpers, secondly we should make them pay the cost for all the damages they have created, and thirdly, we have to bring to justice the oppressor and usurper,” he said.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran on May 10. Photo: Iranian Supreme Leader’s Office / dpa

Israel is believed to have carried out numerous attacks over the years targeting senior Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists.

There is no evidence Israel was involved in Sunday’s helicopter crash, and Israeli officials have not commented on the incident.

Arab countries on the Persian Gulf have also long viewed Iran with suspicion, a key factor in the decision of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to normalise relations with Israel in 2020, and of Saudi Arabia to consider such a move.

Hamas issued a statement of concern for Raisi and his companions on Sunday, saying: “We express our complete solidarity with the Islamic Republic of Iran, its leadership, government and people.”

Additional reporting by Associated Press

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