Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, and its foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, were killed in a helicopter crash. The country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, named a caretaker president ahead of elections on June 28th. Mr Raisi was a leading contender to succeed Mr Khamenei as supreme leader. His death makes it more likely that Mr Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, will replace his father.
The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor announced that he was seeking arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and defence minister, Yoav Gallant, as well as three leaders of Hamas. Joe Biden, the American president, called the Israeli warrants “outrageous”; his government may work with Congress to impose sanctions on the ICC. Mr Netanyahu’s opponents, who have threatened to leave his government if he does not change course in Gaza, rallied round him too.
This article appeared in the The world this week section of the print edition under the headline “Politics”
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From the May 25th 2024 edition
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