Helicopter carrying Iran’s hard-line president apparently crashes in foggy, mountainous region

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday, sparking a massive rescue operation in a fog-shrouded forest as the public was urged to pray.

The likely crash came as Iran under Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched an unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel last month and has enriched uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.

Iran has also faced years of mass protests against its Shiite theocracy over an ailing economy and women’s rights — making the moment that much more sensitive for Tehran and the future of the country as the Israel-Hamas war inflames the wider Middle East.

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.

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Scoop: U.S., Iran held indirect talks this week on avoiding more attacks

Two top Biden administration officials held indirect talks with Iranian officials in Oman this week on how to avoid escalating regional attacks, two sources with knowledge of the talks told Axios.

Why it matters: The talks — involving President Biden's top Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk, and Abram Paley the acting U.S. envoy for Iran — were the first round of discussions between the U.S. and Iran since January, when similar negotiations were held in Oman.

• The talks occurred just over a month after Iran's unprecedented missile assault on Israel on April 13.
• The attack put the Middle East on the cusp of a regional war.

Driving the news: Iran fired 350 ballistic missiles and drones toward Israel in retaliation for Israel's assassination of Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a top Iranian Quds Force general in charge of that nation's military operations in Lebanon and Syria.

• It was the first-ever direct attack on Israel that had been launched from Iranian soil.
• Zahedi had been killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building near the Iranian Embassy in Damascus.

Iran's attack was defeated in an unprecedented joint air and missile defense effort by Israel, the U.S., the U.K., France, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

• Several days after the attack, Israel responded with a targeted strike on an S-300 air defense system at Iranian air force base.

The big picture: One of the Biden administration's main goals since Oct. 7 has been to prevent the Gaza conflict from leading to a regional war.

• The U.S. thinks Iran has a lot of influence over its proxies in the region.
• Those include Hezbollah in Lebanon, the pro-Iranian militias in Syria and Iraq that conducted attacks against U.S. forces, and the Houthis in Yemen who still attack ships in the Red Sea.

Behind the scenes: McGurk and Paley arrived in Oman on Tuesday and met with Omani mediators, the sources said.

• It's unclear who represented Iran at the talks.
• The sources said the talks focused on clarifying the consequences of actions by Iran and its proxies in the region and to discuss U.S. concerns regarding the status of Iran's nuclear program.
• Several Iranian officials hinted in recent weeks about the possibility of Iran moving toward production of nuclear weapons.

What they're saying: Vedant Patel, the State Department's deputy spokesperson, said Monday the Biden administration has ways to communicate with Iran when necessary.

• "The Biden administration continues to assess that Iran is not currently undertaking the key activities that would be necessary to produce a testable nuclear device," he said.
• Patel added that the U.S. doesn't believe Iran's supreme leader has made a decision "to resume the weaponization program that we judge Iran suspended or stopped at the end of 2003."
• The White House and the State Department declined to comment on the talks in Oman.