Hossein Amirabdollahian, Iranian overseas minister, dies in crash aged 60 | Obituaries Information

Iranian International Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has died on the age of 60 in a helicopter crash alongside President Ebrahim Raisi.

The crash occurred on Sunday, nevertheless it took search groups a number of hours to seek out the positioning of the wreckage in Iran’s mountainous East Azerbaijan province and ensure that the occupants of the plane had all died.

Amirabdollahian had been attending the inauguration of two dams close to the border with Azerbaijan, the place Raisi met its president, Ilham Aliyev.

The highest diplomat had been appointed to his place by Raisi after the latter received the 2021 presidential election. The appointment was consultant of a wider shift in Iran’s politics as the main target moved from negotiations with the West to renewed consideration on regional relations. Amirabdollahian had beforehand targeted on relations with the Arab world and Africa.

Like many inside Raisi’s cupboard, Amirabdollahian got here to workplace after the unilateral United States withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, often known as the Joint Complete Plan of Motion (JCPOA), between Iran and world powers. Because of this, elevated Western sanctions bit deeper into the nation’s financial system.

Most just lately, Amirabdollahian had risen to worldwide prominence throughout an intense diplomatic and army standoff with Israel after the latter’s April strike upon Tehran’s consular constructing in Damascus and Iran’s response – a well-telegraphed however direct assault on Israel.

Rise within the diplomatic area

Amirabdollahian, a profession diplomat, was born in Damghan, east of Tehran, in 1964.

He misplaced his father at a younger age and was raised by his mom and older brother.

He set his sights on a profession within the diplomatic corps from an early age, incomes his bachelor’s diploma in diplomatic relations in 1991 from the Faculty of Worldwide Relations, which is run by the Iranian Ministry of International Affairs. He then attended the College of Tehran, the place he graduated with a grasp’s diploma in worldwide relations in 1996 and accomplished his doctorate in the identical topic in 2010.

Amirabdollahian’s ascent within the International Ministry was swift.

Within the late Nineteen Nineties, he was posted to Iran’s embassy in Baghdad earlier than being chosen in 2007 as a part of a three-man delegation to attend talks with the US held in Iraq earlier than being appointed ambassador to Bahrain in the identical yr, a place he held till 2010.

Amirabdollahian went on to take varied roles within the International Ministry. In 2011, he was appointed deputy overseas minister for Arab and African affairs below Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was instrumental in negotiating the JCPOA.

However Amirabdollahian was faraway from the place in 2016 and have become the particular assistant to Ali Larijani, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, however retained contact along with his former diplomatic colleagues.

Amirabdollahian was an enthusiastic proponent of the “axis of resistance”, the community of states and teams against Israel, and was pleased with the friendship he shaped with Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated in a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.

Talking in June of the identical yr, Amirabdollahian praised Soleimani’s “strategic genius” for stopping Syria’s and Iraq’s “disintegration”.

Amirabdollahian additionally spoke warmly of his relations with different members of the axis, sustaining a protracted working relationship with Hezbollah Secretary-Basic Hassan Nasrallah.

“It’s attention-grabbing that even if you discuss with him at three o’clock within the morning,” he later remarked, “he’s so refreshed as if it had been six o’clock within the morning. He’s performed his morning prayers, he’s had his breakfast and has the correct amount of vitality to speak.”

Time as overseas minister

Amirabdollahian was an in depth ally of Raisi, supporting him as mass protests swept the nation after the 2022 demise of Mahsa Amini in police custody. The younger lady had been detained by Iran’s morality police after being accused of not following the gown code for ladies.

Recognized for his distrust of the West in addition to his elementary opposition to Israel, Amirabdollahian nonetheless proved instrumental in reaching out to regional rivals, equivalent to Saudi Arabia, with whom he helped finish the seven-year break in diplomatic ties after every had backed opposing sides in varied regional conflicts.

Amirabdollahian was additionally chargeable for overseeing oblique talks with the US aimed toward offsetting the crippling sanctions imposed upon the nation.

Nevertheless, any actions in the direction of that finish had been swiftly eclipsed in October final yr as Israel started its conflict in Gaza after the assaults on southern Israel by Iran-backed Hamas.

Whereas Iran stated it had no advance information of the Hamas assaults, Amirabdollahian met with Hamas leaders in Iran, Qatar and Lebanon.

Amirabdollahian then assumed a hawkish posture after an Israeli air strike destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

He helped organise Iran’s response, a direct missile and drone assault on Israel that was gradual to reach and warned about prematurely. The assault was a message with Amirabdollahian telling the US community CNN that if Israel launched into extra “adventurism”, Iran’s “subsequent response [would be] instant and at a most stage”.

Amirabdollahian is survived by his spouse and two kids.