An expert has revealed the possible causes behind the helicopter crash that killed the Iranian President and kicked off a power struggle in the Middle Eastern country.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the country’s foreign minister were found dead on Monday hours after their helicopter crashed in fog, leaving the Islamic Republic without two key leaders as extraordinary tensions grip the wider Middle East. Raisi had been lined up as a possible successor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but despite this, he was fairly unpopular among big parts of the political elite and the wider country.
Footage that emerged online in the wake of the President's death showed people celebrating in the streets with fireworks. As his three-day-long funeral begins prosecutors have issued a warning over public celebrations of his death while a heavy security force is present on the streets of Tehran.
Dr Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer at the School of Security Studies at King’s College London, explained to the Mirror how the crash could have happened. Dispelling conspiracy theories that are already swirling, he said: "If you look at all these things that came together yesterday - number one: was the weather, number two: terrible maintenance of very old kits with which they flew and number three: human error.
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Fireworks in Iran reportedly celebrating the President's death (Twitter)"I still don't understand why they would fly across this very inaccessible mountainous area to meet the Azerbaijan president on the border. And doing that when the weather was so bad. This stuff happens. That's not something you can plan for."
Addressing some theories that have emerged since, that maybe he was killed by an internal rival or Iran's long-term enemies US/ Israel, Dr Krieg said: "Raisi was being talked about as a successor (to Khamenei) but there was opposition to him within these circles.
"Even in the IRGC, who opposed him being successor. And there was speculation last night about this being an internal job, of basically someone killing him. There were so many conspiracy theories that came out and one of them was that he was killed by someone inside because they wanted to get rid of him.
Rescue team members work at the crash site (MOJ News Agency/AFP via Getty Im)"But that couldn't have happened. I don't think anyone internally, although they will be an investigation, but even the most hardline Iranian media didn't come out and point the finger. Usually at Israelis or the Americans but even they didn't speculate."
He continued: "No one is openly suspecting it as an act of sabotage, externally by someone like CIA or Mossad. Nor internally which would be someone within the IRGC or the deep state who want to get rid of him. The Israelis don't do that kind of stuff and the CIA don't go after heads of state. It's not a major inflection point, what do you have to gain from him being removed? Internally there were other ways they could have intervened with the process of Raisi becoming supreme leader, they didn't have to kill him."
Twisted remants following the helicopter crash (Anadolu via Getty Images)Despite some commentators suggesting it could mean great instability for Iran, Dr Kireg played that down saying: "It's not as much as an inflection point as people make it out to be. it will be an inflection point for domestic politics but not in terms of foreign policy.
"Iran is a technocratic regime where the government is some sort of buffer between the people and the actual regime. So even if the president is changed it doesn't radically change the trajectory of where the Islamic Republic is proceeding."
Rescuers recovering bodies at the site of President Ebrahim Raisi's helicopter crash (Iranian Red Crescent/AFP via Get)The Iranian constitution requires another election to be held within 50 days. Describing what will happen next, our expert continued: "In 50 days they have to come up with a candidate, that has to be somewhat approved by the guardian council and then they have to run an election at a time when the Iranian regime anyway is extremely unpopular across pretty much all parts of society.
"Raisi might be a good scholar but he's not very charismatic. And it's a big question, and has been for years, of what's going to happen after Khamenei. There isn't a real clear line of succession that has been carved out. He's very sick and he could die any minute."
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