Three Versions Of Iranian President’s Death

There are also conspiracy theories.

The Bell-212 helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi had an accident near the border with Azerbaijan. The helicopter crashed into a steep slope and broke into separate fragments. A number of senior Iranian officials were killed.

“We Can Explain”, together with experts, looked into the causes of the plane crash that claimed the life of Ibrahim Raisi.

Bad weather, old equipment.

In heavy fog, the president and his entourage flew in a Bell 214 helicopter — a machine from the 1970s. The United States prohibits the supply of aircraft parts to Iran, so the country is experiencing great difficulties in servicing aircraft, especially American-made ones.

Bad weather, old equipment and the mentality of the Iranian leadership are quite a sufficient set of factors for the collapse, Israeli military journalist Sergei Auslander commented to “We Can Explain”. “Raisi could have ordered to fly, regardless of the weather, no one would have dared to disobey him. In democratic countries, the decision is made by the crew commander, but in Iran this hardly works.”

The intelligence services of Israel or other countries are behind the crash.

Russian propagandists and Z-bloggers hint at this.

Raisi's death is unlikely to benefit anyone outside Iran, said orientalist Ruslan Suleymanov. “Iran is already a dangerous and unpredictable state. And when it experiences some kind of shock, it becomes even more unpredictable, like a wounded animal.”

Raisi, unlike the IRGC leadership, was not a military leader and was not a target of Israel, Auslander notes.

Raisi's death is the result of political struggle within Iran.

The version of a terrorist attack by the “pro-Western opposition” is also cited by Russian propaganda.

There is no radical pro-Western opposition in Iran capable of organizing an assassination attempt on the president, says political scientist Abbas Gallyamov. The “opposition” there is absolutely systemic. These are moderate reformers. Now they are driven into a corner by conservatives who have announced the “second stage of the Islamic revolution.”

But intra-clan strife could have been the reason for the assassination attempt, says Auslander: “Raisi was considered the likely successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But Khamenei’s son also claims this. The option of political assassination cannot be ruled out.”