As Iran mourns its President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials killed in a helicopter crash, the world will be closely watching the aftermath and the implications on geopolitical equations.
The crash, which took place in northwest Iran, comes at a very critical time as far as the West Asia region is concerned. For the past seven months, Israel has waged a war in Gaza that was triggered by a Hamas attack on Israeli cities. Tehran has been repeatedly accused of backing Hezbollah in opening the Lebanon front against Tel Aviv.
But a major escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran came last month when Iran launch a volley of missiles at Israel, most of which were intercepted by its Iron Dome aerial defence system. The attack, Iran said, was in retaliation to the bombing of its embassy building in Syria by suspected Israeli warplanes. Tel Aviv responded by a limited attack on a missile defence system in Iran's Isfahan province that also..