{"id":319631,"date":"2024-05-20T06:37:34","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T05:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=319631"},"modified":"2024-05-20T20:40:16","modified_gmt":"2024-05-20T19:40:16","slug":"iran-news-in-brief-may-20-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-news-in-brief-news\/iran-news-in-brief-may-20-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran News in Brief \u2013 May 20, 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

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THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH THE LATEST NEWS<\/h2>\n

UPDATE: 9:30 PM<\/span><\/p>\n

EU Official Triggers Backlash after Vowing \u2018Solidarity\u2019 with Iran<\/h3>\n

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The European commissioner for crisis management Janez Lenar\u010di\u010d insisted he was not offering \u201cpolitical support\u201d to the Iranian regime after ending a post confirming the provision of satellite assistance to Iranian rescuers with \u201c#EUSolidarity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rescuers were responding to reports Sunday that a helicopter, carrying President Ebrahim Raisi and other top Iranian officials, had crashed near the border in a densely wooded, mountainous region near the border with Azerbaijan. Raisi, president of Iran since 2021 and considered a potential successor to Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,\u00a0was confirmed dead<\/a>\u00a0Monday morning.<\/p>\n

As countries in Iran\u2019s neighborhood lined up to offer assistance locating the crash site, Lenar\u010di\u010d had\u00a0announced on X<\/a>\u00a0that the EU was activating its Copernicus emergency satellite mapping service to help find the downed helicopter. He ended his tweet with the tag #EUSolidarity \u2014 prompting an immediate backlash.<\/p>\n

Dozens of accounts slammed the post, pointing to Raisi\u2019s prominent role in the regime which has executed thousands of Iranians, the country\u2019s sponsorship of terror, the use of Shahed drones to terrorize Ukrainian civilians, and Tehran\u2019s detention of Swedish EU official Johan Floderus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Iranian Opposition: Death Of Raisi Is ‘Monumental and Strategic Blow to Khamenei’<\/h3>\n

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The death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash “is a monumental and strategic blow to (Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei.” This is how the Iranian opposition, also known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), reacted on Monday.\u00a0The death will trigger a “series of repercussions and crises within religious tyranny that will spur the young insurgents into action,” Maryam Rajavi, president of the NCRI, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Raisi is anything but an uncontroversial figure. After the revolution, he entered the judiciary and held the position of deputy prosecutor in Tehran from 1985 to 1988, a position that links him to the thousands of executions of political prisoners in Iran in the 1980s. Rajavi therefore calls him the “perpetrator of the massacre of political prisoners in 1988”.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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UPDATE: 7:30 PM<\/span><\/p>\n

Helicopter Crash Is Huge Blow To Regime And Will ‘Spur Rebellious Youths Into Action’, Says Resistance Group<\/h3>\n

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The death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a disastrous helicopter crash yesterday could trigger a crisis in the country and spur those who detest the regime into action, the leader of a resistance group has claimed.<\/p>\n

Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), described the crash in Iran’s northwest that killed Raisi, his foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and seven others as an ‘irreparable blow’ to the country’s mullahs.<\/p>\n

‘This represents a monumental and irreparable strategic blow to the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the entire regime, notorious for its executions and massacres,’ Rajavi said.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Iranian Resistance Celebrates Death Of President Raisi In Berlin<\/h3>\n

\"\"After the death of Iranian head of state Ebrahim Raisi<\/a>, numerous Iranians celebrated in front of the country’s embassy in Berlin on Monday morning. The German office of the National Council of Resistance Iran which has its headquarters in Berlin, had called for protests nationwide – including in the capital. Members of the Berlin office of the Resistance Council took Raisi’s death as an occasion for a meeting\u00a0<\/strong>in front of the state representation in\u00a0Dahlem<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Almost 50 people had responded to the call and had gathered in front of the Iranian embassy. The demonstrators had drums with them, waved Iranian flags and shouted\u00a0“Down with Khamenei”<\/strong>\u00a0and “Down with the mullah regime<\/strong>“. A passing car honked its horn. The police secured the event.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Ebrahim Raisi Called Me A Terrorist (After I Survived an Iranian Plot to Blow Me Up) \u2013 Struan Stevenson<\/h3>\n

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It is somewhat ironic that\u00a0Ebrahim Raisi<\/a>, the \u201cButcher of Tehran\u201d, met his end in an\u00a0American<\/a>\u00a0helicopter. When the US-made Bell 212 helicopter plummeted into a mountainside in northern Iran on Sunday, it ended the life of one of the greatest criminals in Iranian history. For him, it was a fittingly fiery end to a murderous career.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I\u2019ve been a key supporter of the democratic Iranian opposition movement and a target for the mullahs\u2019 regime for more than 20 years. It sent a registered diplomat \u2013 Assadollah Assadi \u2013 with instructions to\u00a0detonate a bomb at an opposition rally I attended in Paris<\/a>\u00a0in June 2018. Fortunately, Assadi and three co-conspirators were arrested and sentenced to decades of imprisonment as terrorists. Assadi was then\u00a0disgracefully sent back to a hero\u2019s welcome in Tehran<\/a>\u00a0in an outrageous prisoner-swap deal, in exchange for a young Belgian charity worker taken hostage by the mullahs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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UPDATE: 12:00 PM<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Reactions To The Death Of Iran’s President in A Helicopter Crash<\/h3>\n
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May 20 (Reuters) – Iranian President\u00a0Ebrahim Raisi<\/a>, a hardliner long seen as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a\u00a0helicopter crash<\/a>\u00a0in mountainous terrain near the Azerbaijan border, officials and state media said on Monday.<\/p>\n

The helicopter was also carrying Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and six other passengers and crew.<\/p>\n

Here are reactions to the news:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

MARYAM RAJAVI, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE PARIS-BASED NATIONAL COUNCIL OF RESISTANCE OF IRAN OPPOSITION GROUP, IN A STATEMENT: “This represents a monumental and irreparable strategic blow to the mullahs\u2019 Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the entire regime, notorious for its executions and massacres.<\/p>\n

“It will trigger a series of repercussions and crises within theocratic tyranny, which will spur rebellious youths into action.<\/p>\n

“The curse of mothers and those seeking justice for the executed, along with the damnation of the Iranian people and history, mark the legacy of Ebrahim Raisi, the notorious perpetrator of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners.”<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Exiled Opposition Group Says Raisi Death ‘Monumental Blow’ to Iran<\/h3>\n

The death of Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash is a major blow to the Islamic Republic’s clerical leadership, an exiled opposition group said Monday, predicting a succession of crises.<\/p>\n

The People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) and its political wing the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) have long detested Raisi, accusing him of involvement in the 1988 mass executions of thousands of their members and other dissidents when he was a young prosecutor.<\/p>\n

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Raisi’s death “represents a monumental and irreparable strategic blow to the mullahs’ supreme leader Ali Khamenei and the entire regime, notorious for its executions and massacres”, NCRI leader Maryam Rajavi said in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Death of President in Helicopter Crash Comes as Iran Already Faces Huge Challenges<\/h3>\n