Politico: US Feared WWIII after President of Iran’s Death

In particular, there were concerns that Tehran could seek to blame Washington and “Israel” for the incident.

The helicopter carrying Raisi and his entourage, including Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, went down on Sunday in the country’s northwestern East Azerbaijan province. The president had been returning from a meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, after they inaugurated a major dam project on the border.

The aircraft crashed due to a “technical failure,” while rescue operations were hampered by adverse weather conditions, including fog and rain.

In the aftermath of the incident, the White House is closely monitoring how Iran will react to Raisi’s death, Politico noted, adding that unnamed senior US officials do not expect any significant policy changes from Tehran.

However, as the news of the crash broke, US officials “spent Sunday anxiously awaiting updates” on the situation. According to Politico, they were waiting to see if Iran would accuse “Israel” or Washington of sabotaging the helicopter.

One unnamed official told the outlet that “for a little while, it was not a crazy question to ask ‘Is this how World War III begins?’”