A former Iranian diplomat is putting some of the blame for the Sunday death of the country’s president at the feet of the United States, according to a report.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was traveling with Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and six other individuals when the helicopter they were traveling in crashed into a mountain in the country’s northwest near Iran’s border with Azerbaijan.
State Department spokesman Matt Miller offered “condolences” on behalf of the U.S. government upon hearing the news.
But it did not take long for one former Iranian official to point the finger at Washington.
Citing Iranian state media, Business Insider reported on Monday morning that the country’s former foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, blamed U.S. sanctions that prevent the country from buying newer aircraft for forcing Raisi and the others to fly in a decades-old Bell 212 chopper.