Concerns That Tehran May Blame the U.S. for Raisi's Death: Politico

The United States administration is concerned that Iranian authorities could accuse the U.S. or Israel of being involved in the crash of the helicopter transporting President Ebrahim Raisi of the Islamic Republic. This is reported by Politico, citing its sources, as reported by TASS.

According to them, Washington is closely monitoring Tehran’s response, hoping to maintain the regional status quo while fearing that hypothetical accusations could escalate tensions in its relations with Israel. U.S. officials believe that there are unlikely to be changes in Iranian politics in the near future.

The publication states that on May 19, U.S. officials anxiously followed the search and rescue operations, speculating for hours on how the crash could alter the situation in the Middle East. “Is this really how the third world war begins?” the question has ceased to sound insane for some time, one source told the publication.