Pentagon says no US involvement in Iranian helicopter crash

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has said that the US was in no way involved in the crash of the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian.

He made the remarks at a press conference, TASS reports.

"The US was in no way involved in the [helicopter] crash, that's a fact," Austin said in response to a related question from a reporter.

He said the United States cannot and will not speculate around the death of Iran's president in a plane crash.

"Regarding the death of Iran's president in a very unfortunate helicopter crash. We continue to monitor the situation, but we have no information about the cause of the crash. I can't speculate as to what may have caused the incident," Austin said.

The Pentagon chief, meanwhile, refused to speculate on whether Iran would hold Israel responsible for the helicopter crash.

"They have to conduct an investigation to determine the cause of the crash," Austin said, emphasising that various factors could have led to the crash, including "technical failure, pilot error".