Iranian TV: The helicopter carrying the president suffered a "rough landing"

2024-05-19 15:32:25, Kosova & Bota CNA

Iranian TV: The helicopter carrying the president suffered a "rough

Iran's state television has said that several rescue teams are trying to reach a helicopter involved in the "incident", in which the country's president, Ebrahim Raisi, was.

The television did not give more details.

Raisi has been traveling to East Azerbaijan, an Iranian province.

State television said the incident took place near Jholfa, a city on the border with the country of Azerbaijan, about 600 kilometers northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Television has said that the rescue teams have tried to reach the incident area, but they are being hindered by bad weather conditions.

Torrential rains and strong winds have been reported in that area.

Raisi was in Azerbaijan on Sunday to inaugurate a dam, together with the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.

This dam is the third that the two countries are building on the Aras River.

Iran has several helicopters, but international sanctions make it difficult to replace their parts.

The military fleet has equipment dating back to the period before the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Raisi, 63 years old, is a hard-line official who previously led the judicial sector.

He is close to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and some analysts suggest he could replace the 85-year-old leader after his death or abdication.

Raisi has won the presidential elections of 2021, a process that has been considered with the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic.

Raisi is sanctioned by the United States for his involvement in the mass executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988, at the end of the bloody Iran-Iraq war.

Under Rais's leadership, Iran now enriches uranium to high levels and evades international inspections.

Iran is arming Russia in its war in Ukraine, and has launched a massive drone and missile strike against Israel this year for its war against Hamas - the Palestinian group designated as a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union - in the Gaza Strip.

Tehran also continues to arm its networks in the Middle East, such as Yemen's Houthi rebels and Lebanon's Hezbollah./ REL