A helicopter transporting Iranian President Ebrahim Raise, the country’s foreign minister, and various officials crashed into the northernmost reaches of Iran on Sunday, prompting massive rescue operation in the barathrum of fog shrouding the region.

The news comes as Iran under both Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched an unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel last month. A regime that is closer than ever to enriching uranium to weapons grade levels.

Raisi was traveling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. State TV said what it called a “hard landing” happened near Jolfa, a city on the border with the nation of Azerbaijan, some 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran. Later, state TV put it farther east near the village of Uzi, but details remained contradictory.

Tensions between Iran and Azerbaijan have mounted out of Azerbaijan’s pursuit of the Zangezur corridor, a trade route that would give Azerbaijan unimpeded access to Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic without Armenian checkpoints. Thereby, allowing Azerbaijan unfettered access to Turkey and impeding Iran’s access to Armenia.

Iran’s 40-mile border with Armenia has become one of the most strategically important pieces of terrain when it comes to Iran’s perceptions of its national security interests. Iran deployed some 50,000 troops to the border zone in 2022 in a signal to both Turkey — a Nato member — and Azerbaijan that it would not tolerate any change in international borders in the region and that the territorial integrity of Armenia must be preserved. 

Neither IRNA nor state TV offered any information on Raisi’s condition in the hours afterward. However, hard-liners urged the public to pray for him. State TV later aired images of the faithful praying at Imam Reza Shrine in the city of Mashhad, one of Shiite Islam’s holiest sites, as well as in Qom and other locations across the country. State television’s main channel aired the prayers nonstop.

“The esteemed president and company were on their way back aboard some helicopters and one of the helicopters was forced to make a hard landing due to the bad weather and fog,” Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said in comments aired on state TV. “Various rescue teams are on their way to the region but because of the poor weather and fogginess it might take time for them to reach the helicopter.”

“The region is a bit (rugged) and it’s difficult to make contact,” he added. “We are waiting for rescue teams to reach the landing site and give us more information.”

Update: According to the IRNA, Raisi, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, a senior cleric from Tabriz, a Revolutionary Guard official, and three crew members, have been found deceased.