Three days after the plane crash that killed Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, more and more mysterious and dark details about the case are emerging.
Photo: REUTERS.
Three days after the plane crash that killed Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, more and more mysterious and dark details about the case are emerging. While ordinary Iranians say goodbye to their leader, investigators reconstruct the chronology of the tragedy and do not even rule out the possibility of sabotage.
PROBLEM #1. HELICOPTER AND ITS COMPOSITION
One of the main dilemmas remains the question: why did Raisi fly in an American helicopter 30 years ago? During the fall, the ship was completely destroyed and the cause of the accident was provisionally named as technical problems. At the same time, a source from the Iranian security authorities confirmed: normally for Raisi’s flights they chose Russian-made vehicles, for example the Mi-171.
Although the American helicopter was assembled 30 years ago, it was still equipped with three independent data transmission systems. True, in the end this did not help the rescuers to immediately establish Raisi’s location after the accident. The absence of signals on board suggests that the transmitters were simply turned off “at the right time.”
It is also suspicious that shortly before takeoff the composition of the helicopter crew changed drastically. Firstly, previously pilots in most cases were appointed from the ranks of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, this time for some reason from the regular army. Second, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and Tabriz Governor Malik Rahmeti were initially supposed to fly together. But at the last moment, “for technical reasons,” they were taken to Raisi.
During the fall, the ship was completely destroyed and the cause of the accident was provisionally named as technical problems.
Photo: REUTERS.
PROBLEM #2. CLIMATE
The head of the administration, Raisi Golam-Hossein Esmaili, who was in a nearby helicopter, said: The time at the time of the accident was flying.
“There may have been fog deep in the gorge, but there was none along the flight path. The clouds were a little higher than the helicopter,” Esmaili said.
According to Esmaili, the disappearance of the presidential ship was detected 30 seconds after the pilot of his helicopter ordered the rest of the crew to gain altitude. The signalers managed to locate the Imam of Tabriz, Syed Mohammad Ali Al-Hashem, who was also accompanying Raisi. They maintained contact with him for several more hours until the priest’s death.
“I feel bad, I don’t know what happened, where I am, I’m under the trees, I don’t see anyone, I’m alone,” Esmaili quoted the imam.
PROBLEM #3. FIRE IN THE CABIN
The Turkish newspaper Hürriyet also drew attention to the mysterious nuance of the accident. According to her, the cabin of the presidential helicopter was engulfed in flames. This, by the way, indirectly confirms the words of eyewitnesses who allegedly heard a certain explosion in the sky.
Hürriyet writes: The pilot and two officers of Raisi’s helicopter were burned to death. Additionally, the main part of the fuselage containing the Iranian president was separated from the cockpit. At the end of the article, the author leaves two questions open: Could a fire in the cabin be a sign of a terrorist attack? And could they have planted explosives in the cabin?
AND AT THIS MOMENT
The farewell of the deceased will last several days
Meanwhile, a farewell ceremony for the deceased president began in Iran. It develops in several stages. Yesterday the residents of Tabriz and Qom said goodbye to him, after which Raisi’s body was transferred to the capital. Tomorrow the ceremony will be held in Birjand, after which the Iranian leader will be transferred to Mashhad, his hometown.
Those present sing the national anthem and read the Koran. Some of them use telephone flashlights as symbolic light for candles lit as a sign of mourning. The events are accompanied by a video in which photographs of Raisi are shown and his services to the country are listed.
The funeral in Tehran was attended by the president of the Russian State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, the vice premier of the State Council of China, Zhang Guoqing, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, Sergei Alenik. Among the mourners was Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said: Raisi was a reliable partner and a man of his word, so you could always be sure that agreements would be fulfilled.
But the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, did not even hesitate to dance on the bones of the late Raisi. He joked: The Iranian people and the world as a whole supposedly benefited from the death of the 63-year-old president in a plane crash.
The absence of signals from the plane suggests that the transmitters were simply turned off “at the right time.”
Photo: REUTERS.
WHATS NEXT
According to Leonid Tsukanov, an RIAC expert and PIR Center consultant, if the fact of sabotage is confirmed, Iran’s top leaders can use what happened to remove some unspoken restrictions on the fighting in the Middle East. For example, direct invasion of the territory of neighboring countries and cyber attacks on critical infrastructure that could lead to a man-made disaster.
– It is true, I still would not expect a direct clash with the United States and Israel and a major war in general, because this is not in the interests of Tehran. However, Iran’s many allies, whether the Houthis or Shiite groups in Iraq, could seriously ruin the lives of their opponents and increase the frequency of attacks against enemy targets. Operations to selectively liquidate people who, according to the Iranians, could have been involved in the plane crash should not be excluded, Tsukanov believes.
The expert believes that the intervention of external forces can also become an argument to reactivate the military component of the Iranian nuclear program, in response to an existential threat.
– The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a religious decree prohibiting nuclear weapons. But already in 2021, the head of Iranian intelligence, Esmail Khatib, threatened: the country could change its position if it is “pushed in this direction,” the expert recalled.
Finally, official Tehran can use the plane crash to carry out internal cleansing.
– Now the position of conservatives in the country is strengthening. Any attempt by liberal forces to move forward will be perceived as an attempt to take advantage of Raisi’s death. In addition, the tragedy may temporarily reduce the intensity of the confrontation between Iran’s religious and military elites due to the “fight against a common enemy,” Tsukanov noted.
