Is Tehran preparing for the possibility of the deaths of its President and Foreign Minister, following a helicopter crash on Sunday?

Rescue operations continue in search of the site where Iranian President Ebrahim Raissi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian’s helicopter “crashed” on Sunday. However, Tehran already seems to be preparing for the possibility of their deaths. Iranian Vice-President Mohsen Mansouri was on his way to the northwestern city of Tabriz, the nearest city to the crash site, on Sunday, accompanied by several members of the Iranian government.

At the same time, the Iranian government announced that it was holding an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, headed up by Khamenei. The Iranian administration’s spokesman, Ali Bahadori Jahromi, said the aim was to monitor the progress of rescue operations, but an Iranian security official, quoted by the media, did not rule out the possibility of an “assassination attempt”.

Rescue operations were continuing in the late afternoon in search of the crash site, Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi announced in the early evening. According to Tasnim, the “particularly difficult” weather conditions, with visibility “not exceeding ten meters”, are greatly complicating the progress of the twenty or so rescue teams involved.

The official told Reuters that the lives of Raisi and Amir-Abdollahian were “at risk following the helicopter crash”.
“We are still hopeful but information coming from the crash site is very concerning,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

For this reason, these teams are preferring to use the land route rather than the air route. Some twenty ambulances are currently mobilized.

These rescue teams include the Iranian Red Crescent, the Iranian army and the police.