Late president’s body will be taken from Tehran to his hometown Mashhad, where he will be buried
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers at a memorial ceremony for the late President Ebrahim Raisi and his entourage, who perished in a helicopter crash. “Oh Allah, we didn’t see anything but good from him,” Khamenei said on Wednesday, honoring Raisi at the University of Tehran before tens of thousands of mourners. The crowds then marched from Enghelab (Revolution) Square to Azadi (Freedom) Square in a show of respect and solidarity.
The caskets of Raisi, 63, and the seven others who died in Sunday’s helicopter crash, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, were draped in Iranian flags and adorned with their photographs.
Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Freedom Square, noted the heavy security presence. “The streets are completely closed to traffic, with heavy security measures in place, several security checkpoints, and thousands of people already pouring into the area,” he said.
The memorial event drew several international dignitaries, including Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh, Turkey’s vice president and foreign minister, the deputy prime minister of India, the head of the Russian Duma, the Iraqi prime minister, and representatives from the Taliban in Afghanistan.
“I come in the name of the Palestinian people, in the name of the resistance factions of Gaza … to express our condolences,” Haniyeh told those gathered. He recounted meeting Raisi in Tehran during Ramadan and hearing the late president say that Palestine was the key issue for the Muslim world.
Khamenei has declared five days of national mourning. Memorials for Raisi and his entourage began on Tuesday in Tabriz and the Shia clerical center of Qom.
After Wednesday’s procession, Raisi’s body will be taken to his hometown of Mashhad in the northeast, where he will be buried following funeral rites at the Imam Reza Shrine. The remains of the others who perished in the crash will also be returned to their hometowns for burial.
Investigation
State television announced Raisi’s death early Monday, following the helicopter crash on a fog-shrouded mountainside in northwest Iran en route to Tabriz.
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A search and rescue operation was launched with assistance from Turkey, Russia, and the European Union. Questions have arisen about whether Raisi, Amirabdollahian, and the others should have been traveling on the two-blade Bell 212, believed to be decades old.
Foreign sanctions on Iran, dating back to the 1979 revolution and subsequently over its nuclear program and support for the so-called “axis of resistance,” have hindered the country’s ability to obtain aircraft parts or new aircraft.
Iran’s armed forces chief of staff, Mohammad Bagheri, has ordered an investigation into the cause of the helicopter crash.
Raisi, elected president in 2021, was widely expected to succeed Khamenei as supreme leader.
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During Wednesday’s procession, huge banners hailed the late president as “the martyr of service” and “the servant of the disadvantaged.” However, Raisi leaves a complex legacy, having overseen a deepening economic crisis and a harsh crackdown on mass protests that erupted in 2022 following the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who holds ultimate authority in Iran, has appointed Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, 68, as caretaker president until the election for Raisi’s successor on June 28.
“Iranian society is deeply divided along political lines,” reported Al Jazeera’s Serdar. “In recent elections, voter turnout has been progressively declining. Turnout is a primary source of political legitimacy for the establishment here, and we are seeing it decrease, with many people losing faith in elections.”
He added, “The political establishment will mobilize all its resources to boost turnout and demonstrate that the nation stands united behind it.”
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