U.S. Was ‘Unable’ To Provide Iran Assistance After Crash, State Dept Says

The United States said Monday that it had been unable, largely due to logistical reasons, to accept an Iranian request for assistance following a helicopter crash over the weekend that killed President Ebrahim Raisi and other high level officials, as the State Department offered its condolences, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

The rare request from Iran was disclosed by the State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller during Monday's briefing.

“We were asked for assistance by the Iranian government. We did make clear to them that we would offer assistance, as we would do in response to any request by a foreign government in this sort of situation,” Miller said.  “Ultimately, largely for logistical reasons, we were unable to provide that assistance,” he added, without elaborating.

While Washington is watching to see how Iran handles the political crisis, Miller refrained from offering any comments on the origin of the crash and its implications. "I have seen the statements made on Iranian state television that it was the result of a technical failure.  I don’t have any independent assessment to offer... I wouldn’t want to offer any assessments about what the impact might be," he told TURAN's correspondent.

In the meantime, the State Department found itself playing defense after the spokesperson offered “official condolences” for the death of Ebrahim Raisi, alleged to have been responsible for ordering the murders of Iranian dissidents and brutal crackdowns on protesters.

Miller noted Raisi’s history of alleged involvement in gross human rights abuses against the Iranian people, before adding: “That said, we regret any loss of life. We don’t want to see anyone die in a helicopter crash. But that doesn’t change the reality of his record, both as a judge and president of Iran, the fact that he has blood on his hands.”

As for Raisi's victims in Iran, Washington's message to them is "that we stand with them as we have stood by them, and our policy of holding the Iranian regime responsible for those abuses has not changed and will not change, period," Miller told TURAN's correspondent.