EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič has defended the EU's decision to provide satellite mapping to assist the search for the crash site of the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
Providing satellite mapping services "upon request for facilitating a search and rescue operation is not an act of political support to any regime or establishment," Lenarčič said on X on Monday.
"It is simply an expression of the most basic humanity," he added.
The Iranian president and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian were among the nine people who died when their helicopter crashed in the country's mountainous north-west during bad weather, state media reported on Monday.
After Tehran requested help searching for the crash site, the European Union offered the use of satellite mapping services from the bloc's space programme used for monitoring the Earth.
Lenarčič announced the decision on X on Sunday evening using the hashtag "#EUSolidarity," which drew criticism and accusations of sympathy for the Iranian government.
As a leading figure of the regime, Raisi has been accused of serious human rights violations, especially in the wake of the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the religious police. Her death sparked mass street protests that were violently crushed by security forces.
