Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday led prayers for late Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi as huge crowds thronged the capital, Tehran, for his funeral procession.
Flanked by top officials, Khamenei said prayers over the coffins of the eight who died in Sunday’s helicopter crash, one of whom was former Iranian minister of foreign affairs Hossein Amirabdollahian.
A sea of mourners filled the open space around Tehran University, where prayers were held before the funeral procession moved on to Enghelab and Azadi squares.
Photo: AFP
Iranian state television said that Raisi, who had been widely seen as Khamenei’s most likely successor as supreme leader, had received a “million-fold farewell” from the people of Tehran.
“We have lost a prominent personality. He was a very good brother. He was an efficient, competent, sincere and serious official,” Khamenei told visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.
The leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, joined the procession, as did the deputy leader of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Naim Qassem.
“I say once again ... we are sure that the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue its support for the Palestinian people,” Haniyeh told the crowd to chants of “Death to Israel.”
In the capital, huge banners had gone up hailing the late president as “the martyr of service,” while others bade “farewell to the servant of the disadvantaged.”
Tehran residents received phone messages urging them to join the funeral procession.
“I was sad. I came to calm my heart and calm the heart of the supreme leader,” said one mourner who gave her name only as Maryam and said she had traveled from Varamin, south of Tehran, to pay her last respects.
Raisi’s helicopter on Sunday crashed into a fog-shrouded mountainside in northwestern Iran as he headed back to Tabriz after attending a ceremony on the border with Azerbaijan.
A huge search-and-rescue operation was launched, involving help from the EU, Russia and Turkey. State television announced Raisi’s death early on Monday.
The Iranian military yesterday said that domestically produced drones had played a key role in locating the crash site.
Funeral ceremonies for Raisi and his entourage began on Tuesday with processions through Tabriz and the Shiite clerical center of Qom drawing tens of thousands of black-clad mourners.
From Tehran, the bodies are to be taken to Iran’s second city of Mashhad, Raisi’s hometown in the northeast, where he would be buried this evening after funeral rites at the Imam Reza Shrine.
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