In their three years in power, President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran and his equally hard-line foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, did everything they could to consolidate the “Axis of Resistance” against the United States and Israel.
They armed the Houthis, feeding the militia intelligence that fueled attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea.
But for all those aggressive moves, the two men, both killed in a helicopter crash in the mountains near Azerbaijan on Sunday, were also careful.
Last week, days before their deaths, they approved talks with the United States through intermediaries aimed at making sure the war in Gaza was not the prelude to a wider war in the Middle East.
And they stopped just short of making those bombs, at least as far as American intelligence agencies and international inspectors can determine.
Persons:
Ebrahim Raisi, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Israel
Organizations:
Hezbollah
Locations:
Iran, United States, Israel, Red, Azerbaijan, Gaza