Iranians have been asked to pray for the safety of President Ebrahim Raisi after his helicopter went missing on the way back from a meeting Sunday with President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan.
The helicopter was also carrying Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, among other officials. It went missing in heavy fog in the mountainous region of northwestern Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian listens to a question in a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad in Tehran, Iran, Monday, July 31, 2023. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
The official Fars news agency asked Iranians to pray, according to the Times of Israel:
Authorities have lost contact with the helicopter in which Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was traveling, according to the Iranian Fars news agency.
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Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi says authorities are awaiting further details on the search and rescue operation, adding that teams are still on the way to the apparent crash site due to difficult weather conditions.
Fars calls on Iranians to pray for Raisi following the reports.
Earlier Sunday, the Abu Ali Express news blog reported on the meeting between Raisi and Aliyev, saying that it had been “disturbing” from Israel’s point of view, because Azerbaijan has been friendly with Israel until now.
There is no indication of foreign actors playing a role in the crash. Earlier, as Breitbart News reported, U.S. officials had met indirectly with Iranian officials in Oman to discuss ways to avoid a broader regional war.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.