U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that America had no involvement in the downing of Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi's helicopter. He said this during a press conference following a meeting in the Ramstein format, an UNN correspondent reports.
"The United States had nothing to do with the downing of the helicopter," Austin said.
He also noted that the US continues to monitor the situation.
"Unfortunately, there are no insights into the reason for this. We understand that there is an investigation by Iran, but we are also conducting our investigation. In order to understand what the results will be, we need to wait until the investigation is completed," Austin said.
Addendum
The plane crash occurred when the Iranian president and his entourage were returning from the Khoda-Afarin region in Iran's northwestern East Azarbaijan province after the inauguration of a dam on the border with the Republic of Azerbaijan. The crash killed President Ibrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, among others.
The IRNA news agency reportedthat the cause of the helicopter crash, which killed, among others, Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi, was a technical malfunction.