Helicopter Crash Could Reverberate Across the Middle East, Where Iran's Influence Runs Wide and Deep

Jerusalem, May 20 (AP) apparent crash of a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, country's foreign minister and or officials is likely to reverberate across Middle East.

That's because Iran has spent deces supporting armed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Palestinian territories that allow it to project power and potentially deter attacks from United States or Israel, sworn enemies of its 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Tensions have never been higher than y were last month, when Iran under Raisi and Supreme Leer Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel in response to an airstrike on an Iranian Consulate in Syria that killed two Iranian generals and five officers.

Israel, with help of United States, Britain, Jordan and ors, intercepted nearly all projectiles. In response, Israel apparently launched its own strike against an air defense rar system in Iranian city of Isfahan, causing no casualties but sending an unmistakable message.

sides have waged a show war of covert operations and cyberattacks for years, but exchange of fire in April was ir first direct military confrontation.

ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has drawn in or Iranian allies, with each attack and counterattack threatening to set off a wider war.

It's a combustible mix that could be ignited by unexpected events, like a helicopter carrying top officials disappearing into a mist.

A BITTER RIVALRY WITH ISRAELIsrael has long viewed Iran as its greatest threat because of Tehran's controversial nuclear program, its ballistic missiles and its support for armed groups sworn to Israel's destruction.

Iran views itself as chief patron of Palestinian resistance to Israeli rule, and top officials for years have called for Israel to be wiped off map.

Raisi, a hard-liner viewed as a protégé and possible successor of Khamenei, chastised Israel last month, saying “ Zionist Israeli regime has been committing oppression against people of Palestine for 75 years.” “First of all we have to expel usurpers, secondly we should make m pay cost for all damages y have created, and thirdly, we have to bring to justice oppressor and usurper," he said.

Israel is believed to have carried out numerous attacks over years targeting senior Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists.

re is no evidence Israel was involved in Sunday's helicopter crash, and Israeli officials have not commented on incident.

Arab countries on Persian Gulf have also long viewed Iran with suspicion, a key factor in decision of United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to normalize relations with Israel in 2020, and of Saudi Arabia to consider such a move.

A PROXY WAR STRETCHING FROM LEBANON TO YEMENHamas issued a statement of concern for Raisi and his companions on Sunday, saying: “We express our complete solidarity with Islamic Republic of Iran, its leership, government and people." Iran has provided financial and or support over years to Hamas, which led October 7 attack into Israel that triggered Gaza war, and smaller but more rical Palestinian Islamic Jih, which took part in it. But re is no evidence that Iran was directly involved in attack.

Since start of war, Iran's leers have expressed solidarity with Palestinians. ir allies in region have gone much furr.

Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, Iran's most militarily vanced proxy, has waged a low-intensity conflict with Israel since start of Gaza war. two sides have tred strikes on a near-daily basis along Israel-Lebanon border, forcing tens of thousands of people on both sides to flee.

So far, however, conflict has not boiled over into a full-blown war that would be disastrous for both countries.

Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq launched repeated attacks on US bases in opening months of war but pulled back after US retaliatory strikes for a drone attack that killed three American soldiers in January.

Yemen's Houthi rebels, anor ally of Iran, have repeatedly targeted international shipping in what y portray as a blocke of Israel. Those strikes, which often target ships with no apparent links to Israel, have also drawn U.S.-led retaliation.

BEYOND MIDDLE EASTIran's influence extends beyond Middle East and its rivalry with Israel.

Israel and Western countries have long suspected Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons in guise of a peaceful atomic program in what y see as a threat to non-proliferation everywhere.

n-President Donald Trump's withdrawal from a landmark nuclear pact between Iran and world powers in 2018, and his imposition of crushing sanctions, led Iran to grually abandon all limits placed on its program by deal.

se days, Iran is enriching uranium to up to 60 per cent purity — near weapons-gre levels of 90 per cent. Surveillance cameras installed by UN nuclear agency have been disrupted, and Iran has barred some of agency's most experienced inspectors. Iran has always insisted its nuclear program is for purely peaceful purposes, but United States and ors believe it h an active nuclear weapons program until 2003.

Israel is widely believed to be only nuclear-armed power in Middle East but has never acknowledged having such weapons.

Iran has also emerged as a key ally of Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, and is widely accused of supplying exploding drones that have wreaked havoc on Ukraine's cities. Raisi himself denied allegations last fall in an interview with Associated Press, saying Iran h not supplied such weapons since outbreak of hostilities in February 2022.

Iranian officials have me contrictory comments about drones, while US and European officials say sheer number being used in war in Ukraine shows that flow of such weapons has intensified since war began.