Breaking Newscast: Iran’s President killed in helicopter crash
Newscast
BBC
4.3 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2024
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today we look at the death of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash.
The hard-line cleric was killed alongside Iran’s foreign minister when a helicopter they were travelling in, crashed in heavy fog in northern Iran. The president was elected in 2021 and was seen as a potential successor to Iran’s Supreme Leader.
Adam is joined by the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet to discuss what this means for Iran and the region.
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Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Chris Gray with Gemma Roper. The technical producer was Ben Andrews. The editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | Newscast from the BBC. |
| 0:11.6 | Hello, it's Adam in the studio, and this is your breaking newscast about the death of the Iranian |
| 0:16.7 | President Ibrahim Raezi in a helicopter crash over the weekend. We'll try and untangle what might |
| 0:23.0 | have happened, what could happen, and what the implications of this are. And the person who's |
| 0:27.0 | going to help us do that is a friend of the podcast, Chief International correspondent, |
| 0:30.4 | Lees Doucest. Hi, Leis. Adam, if someone would have predicted that I'd be sitting here with you |
| 0:35.5 | today discussing who will be the next |
| 0:39.5 | president of Iran and how consequential is this process. I would have said, Adam, all of the |
| 0:46.1 | focus now is intense speculation about who will replace the top guy, the supreme leader, |
| 0:51.9 | Ayatollah Khamenei. So a reminder if one was needed, those of us who |
| 0:56.1 | watch politics, we have to watch most of all, the events which come from behind and take us |
| 1:02.4 | completely by surprise. Yeah, and we're recording this episode at 25 past 9 on Monday morning. |
| 1:07.6 | And actually, yeah, we're witnessing one of those moments where Middle Eastern history takes a bit of a bit of a turn. A bit of a tragic turn. |
| 1:15.9 | Yesterday afternoon, on a summer's day here in Britain and in countries across the world, |
| 1:21.2 | most of all, in Iran, came the news. Their head been, and I use the phrase, |
| 1:26.3 | a hard landing by a convoy of three helicopters |
| 1:31.4 | coming across the mountains, treacherous terrain of northwestern Iran, coming back from the |
| 1:37.1 | opening of a dam ceremony across the border in neighboring Azerbaijan. Those three helicopters |
| 1:43.3 | had nine senior officials, including the president |
| 1:46.5 | and his top diplomat Hussein Amir Abdalayan. There was a sharp intake of breath. And then what |
| 1:54.5 | followed, for hours and hours, despite very early on a statement that there would be an announcement, quote |
... |
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