What comes after Iran President Ebrahim Raisi’s death | Analysis

It did not take long for the first accusations of foul play to appear on Iranian state television following the announcement that Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s president, had died in a helicopter crash. Most reports, for now, focus on the poor, foggy conditions the craft was flying near the border between Iran and Azerbaijan, as well as the ageing nature of Iran’s fleet. There have not been formal claims that the helicopter was tampered with on the ground or during its flight. In his first comments on Monday morning with regards to the incident, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, called the crash an “unfortunate incident” and stopped short of suggesting foul play or blaming Israel. But it is, at the least, an unfortunate time for an Iranian leader to fall victim to an accident: the Islamic Republic is engaged in an increasingly open war with Israel, inviting Western pressure with its support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, but also facing ongoing resistance on its own streets.