Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Year : 2, Issue : 21
We express our deepest condolences over the passing of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on Sunday, along with Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, the governor of Eastern Azerbaijan province, and others. With his passing, Iran has lost not only a great president, but also a tested leader who worked his way up from prosecutor and deputy prosecutor in Tehran all the way to attorney general and later chief justice, before being elected president in 2021. Bangladesh, as a friend of Iran, shares its grief over this immense tragedy.
The world has naturally been shocked by the death of President Raisi, who was touted as a possible successor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Messages of condolence from world leaders have been pouring in for Iran. According to local media, Raisi was on his way to the city of Tabriz in north-western Iran after visiting the Iran-Azerbaijan border area. He travelled to the border region after joining Azerbaijan’s President Ilhan Aliyev on Saturday to inaugurate a dam. Raisi had pledged to visit each of Iran’s 30 provinces at least once a year, and regularly travelled around the country. He was travelling in a US-made Bell 212 helicopter when the crash happened.
Afterwards, low visibility and the impassability of the area made search operations difficult. Reportedly, rescue teams finally managed to locate the crash site on Monday morning with the help of Turkish surveillance drones. Unfortunately, once the wreckage was discovered in a wooded area on a mountain slop, it was found that the aircraft was severely damaged and charred, and there were no survivors.
At this tragic hour, our sympathies lie with the people of Iran. First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber has already been announced as interim president of Iran. We hope he will succeed in maintaining the country’s stability following the tragic death of his predecessor. We also hope that Iran’s government will continue to operate “without the slightest disruption” under his leadership, as pledged by an Iranian cabinet statement. Iran has a massive role to play in maintaining stability in the Middle East, and its firm stand in support of the people of Gaza is laudable. Therefore, we urge other countries of the region—as well as the world—to provide Iran with all necessary support during this time.
