On Sunday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi was killed in the crash of his helicopter. If the circumstances of the accident remain to be determined with precision, the theory of mechanical failure remains the most probable according to experts in the country. However, other theses quickly emerged, leaving little room to chance as to the fate of the late leader.
The extremely tense geopolitical situation in the Middle East is not for nothing in the dissemination of different theories on the crash which cost the lives of Ebrahim Raïssi and his Minister of Foreign Affairs. In mid-April, we remember the air attack carried out by Tehran on Israel in retaliation for the bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
So on social networks, many people blame the Hebrew state for the helicopter accident. “The time was Mossad. » “The proximity of the accident of a few km to the border of Azerbaijan sows doubt… When we know that […] Azerbaijan is considered by Israel as a strategic ally against Iran. » “Agent Eli Kopter’s fault again”…
Seen almost a million times, there is the tweet from Ironclad accountwhich claims that “Iran has received information from unknown sources that India may act on behalf of Israel to assassinate Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.”
Fake off
“We cannot stop people from speaking,” laments Thierry Coville, researcher at Iris and specialist in Iran. “Considering an Israeli attack does not hold water to the extent that the regime will organize new elections to establish the same profile as Ebrahim Raïssi,” believes the researcher. We must not forget that it is Ali Khamenei who ultimately leads Iran. »
And when the conspiracy theorists spare Israel, they put forward the hypothesis of an “internal conspiracy”. Seen more than a million times, the tweet of a certain Bertrand Scholler asks: “I don’t believe in the accident theory. A helicopter doesn’t fall without reason. Is the theory of the attack open? » And it is indeed clear that the late president was not unanimous. “I will not hide from you that many Iranians are discreetly rejoicing over this incident,” an Iranian reporter anonymously testified to our colleagues at Figaro.
“An internal conspiracy? You never know,” recognizes Thierry Coville. “There is a big competition to become the Guide’s successor, and Raïssi was in a good place,” he continues, “but it is the day Ali Khamenei disappears that the question will really arise. »
If it is neither the Israelis nor Raïssi’s rivals, there remains the Americans. “The CIA,” says an Internet user. This is perhaps, but indirectly, the most credible hypothesis. The aircraft in which the president was traveling was a Bell 212 “Huey”. Helicopter massively used by the United States during the Vietnam War and popularized by Francis Ford Coppola’s film, Apocalypse Now. A very old model, therefore, still used in civilian life today at the cost of frequent modernizations. Which was certainly not the case for Raïssi’s Bell 212. “For the maintenance of its devices, Iran is unable to obtain quality spare parts due to the American embargo,” explains the Iris researcher. “There is a huge problem on this side, even for civilian planes, the Iranian fleet is too old,” he underlines.