Operation is underway in northern iran. After a Helicopter Crash involving iranian president ebrahim raisi. The aircraft went down early this morning after the president and other officials attended a ceremony for the opening of a new near the border with azure by john. At this time, raisis condition is unknown and rescuers are having difficulty reaching the crash shite because of the heavy fog and the bad weather russia, a close ally to iran, has announced it will send to advanced aircrafts and 50 additional Mountain Rescuers to help with those search efforts. Thats according to Iranian State news, seen as nic robertson, ies tracking the story closely, he is joining us now with the latest nick. It seems like were entering about our 13 now. Since this chopper went down, what more do you know . Yeah. And a couple of hours since we had conflicting information from the Islamic Revolutionary guard corps in East Azerbaijan province there in the very northwest of iran. They said that they received a signal and perhaps a signal, something from a cell phone the location of the site. They said they had located the site. Therefore, but the the Iranian Red Crescent equivalent of the red cross said no, they just do not know where that sayyed is. And ive just been watching online a turkish Drone Aircraft over flying the area where we understand theyre missing trying to find information about whether crash sayyed is, but the countrys leaders at the moment, the Supreme Leader, other leaders, telling iranians right now, just to pray for their president irans government asked people to pray for that president so they did for hours, faith and the hopi survived are mountainous Helicopter Crash. All the country had to cling on to hours earlier was a Border Government Helicopter on the way to open a dam in irans far northwest. It was a big deal on the border with azerbaijan. He met that countrys president , but within hours, racist helicopter carrying him, irans Foreign Minister and other top officials back from the dam had crashed in dense fog, according to Iranian State news, a Frantic Search and rescue was launched ambulances rush to the area, medics and Mountain Climbers searching for direction in the dense fog of the East Azerbaijan province mountains. The Weather Conditions in the rugged remote region too dangerous to use helicopters. The head of irans armed forces ordered the mobilization of all facilities and equipment to assist in the search army, police even the elite Islamic Revolutionary guard. As the search continued irans Supreme Leader telling the country, the government has a situation under control. What was be assured that there will be no disruption in the countrys affairs. The government authorities, since they have learned about the incident this afternoon, ive working hard and hopefully everything will be fine 63yearold racy was elected president in 2021 are hard liner he has overseen a tightening of the countrys already strict morality laws. Before that, as former chief justice prosecutor general, and deputy chief justice, he oversaw many executions of activists regime opponents he also oversaw the bloody crackdown of antigovernment protesters following the death of mahsa amini in 2022. Hardline enough to be seen as a possible successor to Supreme Leader ali khamenei. Both he and the foreign minutes its there had taken a tough line negotiating Irans Nuclear program, as well as strong support for her mass in israels war on gaza. Just surviving in those mountains, right now, even if there was a lighter crash, which was an early indication, early reports apparently coming from the site, but so far not not panning out that indicated that the helicopter had crashed but hadnt gone down that hard, but just surviving. And these conditions right now well be very difficult. Its a subzero at the high altitudes there youre up to about 2000 meters on some of the high peaks at about 6,000 feet theres snow predicted in the precipitation overnight. So just surviving in evil if youve managed to, even if the president or others on board had managed mr. Get out of the aircraft, had it come down hard, is just going to be tough. If you look at the vegetation there, some places its forest, some place theres not much vegetation. The Mountain Sides, a really steep, there are no sort of shelters on the Mountain Side there you have to really get way down much lower to get to where theyre there farms and villages and any kind of shelter. Yeah, really, really difficult conditions. Nic robertson. Thank you so much for that reporting. Lets turn now to cnn pentagon correspondent oren lieberman, whos here in the studio with me coming back here to the us and how the administration is responding to this. What are you hearing . Well, the us is watching this very closely. Its not just the white house and the National Security council, but the State Department and others as well still we havent seen any Public Comment and that perhaps not really a surprise President Joe Biden was briefed on this in the first hours after it happened, according to the White House Press secretary, but they havent said any more than that. First, the us is still looking for more information to try to find out what happened. And its in a remote area as nick pointed out, and the information is likely to come from either iran or Iranian State media. Second, the us of course, wants to keep its distance here and not imply or show in any way that it was involved in this. So the us will keep its distance until it learns more. And so far we havent seen it any Public Comment coming from the white house, the us, of course, well aware of what this could mean for a region thats already seen quite a lot of destabilising acts. For example, iranian proxies launching scores of attacks on us forces in iraq and syria. Since the beginning of the gaza war. And even if that hasnt happened in a few months now, the us knows thats a lever for that iran can turn on and off pretty much at will the us also aware that iranian president ebrahim raisi, he doesnt have the power or influence that the Supreme Leader, ayatollah, khomeini, he has, but he is viewed as one of the potential successors here. And depending on what happens here, that may only leave one other option. And that the Supreme Leader is sun, the us, watching all of these dynamics, but crucially waiting at this point for more information to find out what truly happened and are all the other assets that are flooding the zone, turkish, russian, other countries able to help in this situation. It is worth pointing out that as you noted, the nic were 13 hours into this its difficult to imagine a situation where a senior us official would go missing and we wouldnt have answers very quickly or western official and yet here we are waiting for any kind of definitive information that doesnt contradict earlier info, right . So many questions still an hour, 13. All right. Or in lieberman. Thanks so much with us now, former defense secretary mark esper, who served during the trump administration. And one disclosure before we get started esper serves on the board or as a Strategic Advisor for a handful of aerospace and defense related companies. Secretary esper, thanks again for being here tonight just off the top this is a wild story, is 13 hours later, we have no idea about the status of the president of iran. What do you make of this situation that is unfolding right now . Yeah good evening, jessica. I agree. Its surprising that there has been no communications in an aircraft that you would think would be loaded with Communications Gear for the president of iran. I know thats how we fly, how we operate in the us military. And certainly for the president of the United States. So there was an early report that it might have been in a hard landing. Im surprised they with takeoff often that type of weather to begin with, but nonetheless, even a hard landing, youd still have your Communications Gear. So theres a lot here that goes unanswered. And you got to pile on top of that the fact that this is a very opaque regime. So for all we know, they do know what happened and what the status is of president racy and the other passengers. But theyre just not willing to reveal it yet. So we should know in the next 24 hours, thats for sure. You would expect to know something in the next 24 hours yeah, i think so. I think by tom, The Sun Comes Up in the morning. You its 2am their now its the middle of the night. The weather picks up. Its bad. Other it looks like theres still fog settled in air but i think by the morning once they flood the zone, its still pretty wide area, like 20 by 30 miles. They get the teams. I suspect that some point therell be able to put aircraft back up and look for the wreckage or some type of signs of where they might be. And if we broaden it out, again underscoring, we dont know what we dont know here. We dont we havent gotten a definitive the update on whos alive, who is not alive, what the wreckage may look like. But i do think so many people read this here. This are listening to us talk right now and wonder, well, what is this mean for the broader region, for the middle east right now that has already been such a tinderbox. What do you think yeah, i think thats the big issue here is what does it mean right . Raisis important because he became president of the country in 2021, consolidating power amongst all the branches of the government and an ally and favored by the Supreme Leader common a. So its a very important player during his tenure, his lead Violin Crackdowns on the people, particularly young women, women, and young girls. He also of course led the first direct strikes on israel with drones and ballistic missiles. It just acute occurred a few weeks ago. But at the same time, hes seen a very bad economy and theres a lot of unrest in the country. But even more importantly, jessica, is this. He is seen as the front motor to succeed common, who is now at five years old, has been in power for 35 plus years, has been reportedly in bad health for many, many years and people think that there may be a turnover of power here in a few years to a younger leader, younger cohort and raci was considered the guy, or at least the front runner unofficially. So to me thats the most important thing here is how does it shuffle the deck politically within the regime indeed, he has been killed. And what does that do to the Power Structure . I dont think it changes anything in the near term with regard to policies, the hardliners are still in charge. And of course in a country like iran hardliners, its a matter of degree, right . Theres moderates who are hardliners. Theres really hard liners and hes net second camp. But what does it mean for the Succession Plan for the regime . And so what what, how did they begin to, what are those sort of Succession Plans look like in terms of how long are they kind of put together, how much lead time do they normally have if you do indeed have to reshuffle the deck, is that highly disruptive . Yeah. Look, i think the first thing is to get the Government Back firmly in control again, assuming that he was killed, that it means the Senior Vice President , a banned by the man, by the name of a mock bar, would take control temporarily with the approval of the Supreme Leader. And within 50 days, it had to have a special election. And i think whoever gets picked two lead the country, then i would assume becomes a contender. Of course, to be Supreme Leader one day. But as, but as wanted to reporters mentioned the other contender is common. A son and so that makes it very interesting, dynamic as well in terms of how the players, how it unfolds, and then of course on top of all that we know, theres a war going on between iran and israel through its proxies in iraq and syria, and gaza, and southern lebanon. Of course, race has been very instrumental in terms of improving relations with china. And even more so with russia and its war in ukraine. So some of these policies could change once you have new leadership in. But, but i would assume the hardliners remain in power and then the question is, how does the, how does the Deck Reshuffle with regard to the successors to the Supreme Leader . Its also been interesting to see obviously, iran does has state media. Theyre and guest after guest is said you know, dont dont trust them everything theyre saying and we put that asterisk next to it, but they have been giving some information. What do you make of the information theyve given out so far, what they are saying, what theyre not saying . Well, there have been mixed reports. Its been obviously covering the Supreme Leader, a reassuring everybody telling telling the country that everything is under control, things will be in charge. Again, i would think of something if the worst happen that this is going to be managed very tightly by the Supreme Leader. Of course, youre gonna have any number of conspiracy shes coming out of this, that it was more than just the weather that helicopter Maintenance Issue that maybe the israelis were involved with the United States or something. Maybe theres some internal fingerpointing in the power struggle, but who knows . But i think theyre going to want to control the information dynamic. And use it to their best advantage as they make this transition. The power, again, assuming that the worst has happened for a raisi . Yeah. And at this point, again, just to underscore everybody, we dont know what his status is. All we know is that this helicopter went down in this very remote part of orawn. All right. Secretary mark esper. Thank you so much. Thanks. Jessica after weeks of testimony, the first Criminal Trial of a former president is nearing the end. What we expect this week and the trumps Hush Money Trial youre in the cnn newsroom more than 500 million in art stolen may saw what turned out to be the biggest archivist in history. You cant help but wonder if this was some sort for the the inside job, how would really happen with jesse l. 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