Monday, 05/27/2024 Navid Hamzavi Senior Producer at Iran International TV
The President’s bodyguard was notably absent from the ill-fated helicopter The latest images of Ebrahim Raisi show his bodyguard was almost always at his side. However, the released list of casualties revealed that he was not onboard.
Given that the Bell 212 helicopter can accommodate 15 passengers but only had 8 on board, the question arises: why did Ebrahim Raisi’s personal bodyguard continue the journey in a different helicopter?
. En route to Tabriz, the helicopters attempted to avoid a “cloud Layer” by increasing their altitude. While the first and third helicopters successfully navigated the clouds, the president’s helicopter, flying in the middle, disappeared. It was later discovered to have crashed, resulting in the deaths of all its passengers. Iran President chief of staff stated: “We emerged from the cloud layer very normally, even without any turbulence.”
An interview with Gholamhossein Esmaeili, Raisi’s chief of staff and a member of the president’s entourage, has further contributed to the confusion. He was in contact with Mohammad Ali Al-Hashem, a passenger aboard the helicopter, for three to four hours after the incident. However, the alleged surviving passenger was found dead when rescue teams arrived, although his body was not burned like that of Raisi and others. .
Esmaeili explains that he attempted to contact the pilot, but Al-Hashem answered the phone instead. He reveals that he queried Al-Hashem about the incident, to which he responded that “he did not understand what had happened”.
[May 22 2024 Iran: Funeral for President Ebrahim Raisi ]
Iranians dance in Toronto, Canada, on May 20, 2024, to celebrate the death a day earlier of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who was reviled by opponents of Iran’s authoritarian Islamist rulers.
[May 20 2024 if a president dies ]
Brent crude futures extended gains on Monday, inching up amid political uncertainty in major producing countries after Iran’s president died in a helicopter crash
“No survivors” were found at the crash site of the helicopter carrying Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, Iranian state news agency IRINN and semi-official news agency Mehr News reported.
A brief outline of what Iran’s constitution says happens if a president is incapacitated or dies in office:
According to Article 131 of the Islamic Republic’s constitution, if a president dies in office, the first vice president takes over, with the confirmation of the supreme leader, who has the final say in all matters of state.
A council consisting of the first vice president, the speaker of parliament and the head of the judiciary must arrange an election for a new president within a maximum period of 50 days.
[July 29 2021 Covid 19: out of control ]
July 27, 2021 TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran recorded over 34,900 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, setting the nation’s single-day record for cases as vaccinations lag, public complacency deepens and the country’s outbreak spirals further out of control.
[February 2 2021 unreported ]
Around 500 people a day are dying of Covid-19 in Iran, according to official statistics, though the actual number could be higher. The official pandemic death toll has risen to 70,000— a number that, according to Iran’s Scientific Council, has been underreported and could, in reality, be four times higher.
[January 8 2021 no vaccines from the United States ]
Tehran, Iran – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has prohibited imports of COVID-19 vaccines from the United States and the United Kingdom.
The supreme leader’s order led to a halt in Iranian Red Crescent Society’s plans to import 150,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that had been secured with the help of philanthropists, he Red Crescent Society had previously announced additional plans to buy one million doses of a vaccine from China. Iran’s government is also trying to secure 16.8 million doses of vaccines from COVAX, a global vaccine effort operating under the World Health Organization.
[December 19 2020 Office of Foreign Asset Control allows vaccines ]
Iran has signed up for COVAX, an international program designed to distribute coronavirus vaccines to participating countries around the world. That program is run in part by Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance. Gavi says the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control has already issued a license for Iran to take part. The Treasury declined to comment.
[November 26 2020 30% infected? ]
President Hassan Rouhani said on July 18 2020 that some 25 million Iranians may have been infected with coronavirus, as Iran reimposed restrictions in the capital and elsewhere. This corresponds to more than 30% of Iran’s 80 million population.
[April 3 2020 confirmed 53,183 — deaths 3,294 ]
Iran [confirmed] 53,183 [deaths]3,294 [recovered]17,935 [last update]4/3 9:55 AM
[March 31 2020 infections crossed 40,000, and 3,186 new cases ]
Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said at a daily news briefing that 117 more people had died from the virus over the past 24 hours. Iran’s official coronavirus death toll reached 2,757 on Monday and the number of infections crossed 40,000, and 3,186 new cases had been confirmed.
https://middle-east-online.com/en/iran-virus-infection-numbers-pass-40000
[March 6 2020 limit travel – 4,747 confirmed cases ]
Iran may use “force” to limit travel between cities and announced the new coronavirus has killed 124 people amid 4,747 confirmed cases in the Islamic Republic as people tried to reach the Caspian coast from Tehran, despite authorities earlier telling people to remain in their cities.
[March 5 2020]
Iran will begin putting up checkpoints to limit travel between major cities and has urged people to reduce their use of banknotes as authorities try to restrict the spread of the coronavirus, which has caused at least 107 deaths and infected more than 3,500 people across the country.
The Iranian health minister, Saeed Namaki, announced the drastic new measures during a televised press conference on March 5 2020, adding that schools and universities would remain closed until Nowruz, the Persian new year, on 20 March.
[October 4 2019 Passage from Iran to Syria at Al-Qa’im ]
Syria and Iraq have officially reopened the Albukamel border crossing closed since 2014. Al-Tanf straddles the main highway between Damascus and Baghdad, which will ultimately link Tehran to Beirut and the Mediterranean Sea. “There is deep concern about how Iran will use this border opening to maintain its logistic lines in the Levant.”
The crossing between Albukamel and Al-Qaim, on the Iraqi side of the border, is one of three linking the two countries. U.S.-backed Kurdish forces control the northernmost crossing at al-Yaroubia, and other U.S.-backed Syrian forces control the southernmost crossing at Al-Tanf.
[March 21 2019]
Iraq and Syria intend to reopen the Al-Qa’im border crossing between the two countries near the city of Al-Bukamal.
Syria and Iraq are connected through three main border crossings. One, near al-Tanf, is controlled by the American forces still in Syria and whose mission is to prevent Iranian forces from entering Syria via Iraq. The second, al-Rabia in the northeast corner of Syria, is controlled – for now – by the Syrian Kurdish forces. The third, the al-Qa’im crossing, is under the control of the Assad regime and could serve as a convenient crossing point not only for Iraqi goods but also for soldiers and weapons from Iran passing through Iraq to Syria.
Iraq: U.S. did not strike al-Bukimal
Crescent Shift 