Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash near the Azerbaijan border, amid poor weather conditions. Raisi, a hardliner viewed as a successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was traveling with several officials, including the governor of East Azerbaijan Province and a senior imam from Tabriz, who were also killed. The crash coincides with significant internal dissent and international tension over Iran’s nuclear program and its alliance with Russia amid the Ukraine war. Additionally, the region is volatile following increased Iran-Israel hostilities linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict. An Israeli official denied involvement in the crash. Iran’s former foreign minister Javad Zarif claims the US is ‘one of the main culprits of yesterday’s tragedy’ due to sanction of ‘aircraft and aviation parts to Iran’, adding this will be ‘recorded in the list of US crimes against the Iranian people’.
