Iraq offers neighboring Iran help in search and rescue efforts for Raisi helicopter

BAGHDAD — Iraq offers neighboring Iran help in search and rescue efforts after Iranian state media said President Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter was involved in “an accident” in poor weather conditions.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani “instructed the interior ministry, the Iraqi Red Crescent and other relevant authorities to offer the Islamic Republic of Iran the available resources to aid in the search for the Iranian president’s aircraft,” government spokesman Bassem al-Awadi says in a statement.

Iranian state television announced that “an accident happened to the helicopter carrying the president” in the Jofa region of the western province of East Azerbaijan.

Search and rescue team were headed to the remote mountain area, Iranian state media says, adding that Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was also aboard the aircraft.

State TV broadcast footage of an Iranian Red Crescent team walking up a slope in thick fog, as well as live footage of crowds of worshippers reciting prayers in the holy Shrine of Imam Reza in the city Mashhad, Raisi’s hometown.