‘It wasn’t us’: Israeli official tells Reuters after Iranian president death in helicopter crash
May 20, 2024
Israel was not involved in any way in the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, an official has told the Reuters news agency.
On Sunday, Iranian President Raisi, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and several state officials died in a helicopter crash in a fog-shrouded mountain region in western Iran.
According to Israeli JPost, rumours circulated throughout social media in Israel Sunday night into Monday morning alleging Mossad involvement in the helicopter crash.
Israel and Iran have been sworn enemies since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
In recent years, Tel Aviv has called on the US and Western countries to intervene to halt the Iranian nuclear programme.
Tensions between Tel Aviv and Tehran have soared since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip as Tehran backed the Palestinian group Hamas in its struggle against Israel.
In early April, Israel launched a deadly strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, and Iran responded by launching an unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel in mid-April.
A week later, Israel launched a strike against a site in Iran’s central province of Isfahan in what US media reported as an Israeli response to the Iranian attack.
For years, Tel Aviv has been accused by Tehran of conducting a campaign of assassinations against renowned Iranian scientists inside and outside Iran.
Meanwhile, Iran-backed Hezbollah has been locked in tit-for-tat strikes with Israel since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza.
In tandem, Houthi militants in Yemen have also launched attacks on Israeli ships in the Red Sea and targets within Israel.
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