These last days were particularly turbulent days for certain leaders around the world. There was Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico who survived an assassination attempt, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the country’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian lost their life in a helicopter crash across fog-covered mountains in north-west Iran and hours after, there was the news that the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.

President Raisi was a hardliner who formerly led the country’s judiciary. He was viewed as a protege of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and some analysts had suggested that he could replace the 85-year-old leader.

The President of Iran only plays second fiddle to the Supreme Leader of Iran.

While President Raisi’s death quickly aroused suspicions, Iranian authorities swiftly dismissed any notion of a hidden hand behind the incident, and Israel also denied any connection with the crash.

On the other hand, the slightest whisper from a reliable source that the crash was no accident would unleash a greater hell in the region and maybe beyond.

Raisi’s death paves way for Khamenei’s son to be Iran’s next Ayatollah. Mojtaba has long been rumoured to be a potential successor to his father and the untimely death of President Raisi only makes his path easier.

Ayatollah Khamenei,85-years-old, has led the country for 30 years, and many believed President Raisi was in line to succeed him, but his sudden death has also made a sudden change to the math.

To assuage some of the suspicions behind the tragic death, the few helicopters Iran possess are in dire conditions due to international sanctions make it difficult to obtain parts for them.

Most of its military air fleet dates to before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iranian officials emphasized that initial indications suggested that weather conditions were likely the main cause of the tragedy.

This though did very little to bury certain suspicions behind death. With the sudden death of President Raisi, the Iranian regime unexpectedly finds itself faced with having to hold elections to appoint a successor. Under Iran’s constitution, a new presidential election must be held within 50 days.

Iran’s constitution provides on who will become the interim president of the country if the incumbent dies. Mohammad Mokhber, who holds the position of the First Vice President, will be the country’s temporary president till the election is held… a long 50 days ahead.

Whilst it has become common practise in the Middle East these days that when one’s enemy suffers a misfortune, his enemies people take to the street to celebrate, this time there were reports celebration within Iran itself for the news of the death of a man who they say was responsible for hundreds of deaths in his four-decade political career.

It was during Raisi’s tenure that protests swept the country after the death of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after being arrested by police under Iran’s harsh hijab laws and with more than 19,000 protesters jailed, and at least 500 were killed.

Hours before Raisi’s death was confirmed by state media, videos circulated on Telegram showing celebratory fireworks, one of them from Amini’s hometown of Saqqez. Iranians from inside and outside the country shared posts reminding the world of Raisi’s brutal presidency and his repression of political dissidents.

All this hot on the heels of the assassination attempt on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. An attempt that underscores the persistent, if relatively rare, threat of political violence against European leaders.

Fico, who was shot and wounded, became the latest in a series of prominent figures targeted by attackers over the past several decades.

 Although the shooter, a 71-year-old man, has been apprehended, the motive for the attack remains unclear. This incident adds to a historical continuum of violence against political figures in Europe, reflecting the turbulent undercurrents that sometimes surface in dramatic and violent acts.

On the other hand, just when it seemed Netanyahu’s time in power might finally be ending, the International Criminal Court intervened to potentially prolong his tenure.

The Israeli prime minister’s fragile war cabinet was on the verge of collapse days earlier after retired General Benny Gantz, the Israeli politician most likely to end Netanyahu’s lengthy and turbulent political career, threatened to leave the government if Netanyahu did not present a post-war plan for Gaza’s governance.

Today, the retired general’s rebellion seems to have been sidelined due to an announcement on Monday by the International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor, Karim Khan. Khan declared his intention to seek arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, along with three Hamas leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Islamist group in Gaza.

If Khan and his six-member panel — notably, five of whom are British — intended to prompt a ceasefire by accusing both sides of war crimes and crimes against humanity, their efforts appear to have fallen short.

Almost immediately after the news broke, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, one of Netanyahu’s chief political rivals, was quick to condemn the move and the same did Gantz. And consequently, the recent calls for fresh elections seem more distant than ever.