Israeli politicians celebrate Iranian President Raisi's death

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) - Israeli politicians celebrated on Monday the death of Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi, his foreign minister and other officials in a helicopter crash the previous day.

Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials died as the aircraft they were onboard went down in the mountainous East Azerbaijan province on Sunday afternoon.

Amichay Eliyahu, the heritage minister, marked the killing by posting an image of a wine glass on X, accompanied by a “Cheers” in the caption.

“Crazy people who only last night wished death to the prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) and right-wing people are asking us not to rejoice in the death of the murderer from Iran,” he wrote in a subsequent post.

Avi Maoz, the leader of Noam party and a Knesset member, also took to social media to comment on the incident. He recalled a threat made by the late Iranian president less than a month ago. “Less than a month ago, he (Iranian president) threatened that 'if Israel attacked, there would be nothing left of it,' and now he has become just a speck of dust in history,” he said.

Avigdor Lieberman, former defense minister and leader of the opposition right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, told the Ynet news site that Israel “will not shed a tear for the death of the Iranian president.”

While there have been individual reactions, the Israeli government has yet to make an official statement regarding the death of top Iranian officials.

Raisi’s deputy, Mohammad Mokhber has taken over the presidency after supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s approval.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio