Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has died at the age of 60 in a helicopter crash alongside President Ebrahim Raisi.
The crash occurred on Sunday, but it took search teams several hours to find the site of the wreckage in Iran’s mountainous East Azerbaijan province and confirm that the occupants of the aircraft had all died.
Amirabdollahian had been attending the inauguration of two dams near the border with Azerbaijan, where Raisi met its president, Ilham Aliyev.
The top diplomat had been appointed to his position by Raisi after the latter won the 2021 presidential election. The appointment was representative of a wider shift in Iran’s politics as the focus moved from negotiations with the West to renewed attention on regional relations. Amirabdollahian had previously focused on relations with the Arab world and Africa.
Like many within Raisi’s cabinet, Amirabdollahian came to office after the unilateral United States withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), between Iran and world powers. As a result, increased Western sanctions bit deeper into the country’s economy.
Most recently, Amirabdollahian had risen to international prominence during an intense diplomatic and military standoff with Israel after the latter’s April strike upon Tehran’s consular building in Damascus and Iran’s response – a well-telegraphed but direct attack on Israel.
Rise in the diplomatic arena
Amirabdollahian, a career diplomat, was born in Damghan, east of Tehran, in 1964.
He lost his father at a young age and was raised by his mother and older brother.
He set his sights on a career in the diplomatic corps from an early age, earning his bachelor’s degree in diplomatic relations in 1991 from the School of International Relations, which is run by the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He then attended the University of Tehran, where he graduated with a master’s degree in international relations in…
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