Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the country’s foreign minister were found dead Monday hours after their helicopter crashed in fog, leaving the Islamic Republic without two key leaders as extraordinary tensions grip the wider Middle East. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in the Shiite theocracy, quickly named a little-known vice president as caretaker and insisted the government was in control, but the deaths marked yet another blow to a country beset by pressures at home and abroad. Iran has offered no cause for the crash nor suggested sabotage brought down the helicopter, which fell in mountainous terrain in a sudden, intense fog.
Bunch of old dudes dying while using a notoriously risky mode of transportation in bad weather over tricky terrain, while the only thing pointing to Israel thus far is motive. I’d say low.
…while flying in a helicopter introduced in 1968 and last manufactured in 1998 in a country that is sanctioned and most likely can’t reliably get spare parts for it.
Bunch of old dudes dying while using a notoriously risky mode of transportation in bad weather over tricky terrain, while the only thing pointing to Israel thus far is motive. I’d say low.
…while flying in a helicopter introduced in 1968 and last manufactured in 1998 in a country that is sanctioned and most likely can’t reliably get spare parts for it.