Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says there is very little more he can add to reports that a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi crashed.
The helicopter carrying Mr. Raisi and foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian went down in the mountainous northwest region of Iran.
“President Raisi, the foreign minister and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash,” a senior Iranian official told Reuters.
Iranian state media have also put out a recent post to social media stating there is no trace of survivors at the site of the Iranian president’s helicopter crash.
Mr. Albanese said on Monday morning he had seen the reports and that is all the information they have at this time.
“The reports indicate that a helicopter carrying the Iranian president and the foreign minister has not arrived at its destination, is missing,” he said.
Amid the conflict in the Middle East, Mr. Albanese added Australia wants to continue to work with the international community to increase pressure on Iran to cease its “destabilising actions.”
“Whether it be its support for Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon, or the Houthis as well,” he said.
“We have been very much focused on wanting to see the conflict in the Middle East, to stop it from spreading and to see de-escalation occur in the region.”
No Sign of Life
Iranian state news agency IRNA is reporting there is no sign of life at the president’s wreckage, which was discovered by a volunteer drone team at the Iranian Red Crescent Society.“Upon discovering the location of the president’s crashed helicopter, there was no sign of the passengers being alive,” the president of the Iranian Red Crescent Society said.
Iranian state media have blamed bad weather for the incident and described it as an accident at this stage, noting that the thick fog and difficult weather conditions made it difficult to reach the site.
Officially, the Iranians said the helicopter carrying the president was forced to make a “hard landing” in Dizmar forest between the cities of Varzaqan and Jolfa in East Azerbaijan province.
Russian President Vladmir Putin has met with the Iranian envoy in the aftermath of the crash.
Meanwhile, Australia recently imposed targeted sanctions on five Iranian individuals and three entities in response to Iran’s “destabilising behaviour” in the Middle East.
This includes against the country’s defence minister, Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, and the Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force, Brigadier General Esmail Qaani.
