The late president’s body will be taken from Tehran to his hometown of Mashhad, where he will be buried.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei led prayers at a memorial service for late President Ebrahim Raisi and his aides who died in a helicopter crash.
Addressing a crowd of tens of thousands of people walking from Enhrab Square to Azadi at Tehran University on Wednesday, Ayatollah Khamenei paid tribute to Raisi and said: “O Allah, we see nothing but good from him.” (Freedom) Square.
A few minutes ago, Imam Khamenei led funeral prayers over the bodies of President Ebrahim Raisi and his esteemed companions. pic.twitter.com/eSFemTDsne
— Khamenei (@khamenei_ir) May 22, 2024
The coffins of Raisi, 63, and seven others killed in Sunday’s accident, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, were draped with Iranian flags with their photos on them.
Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Freedom Square, said tight security was in place in the area.
“The road is completely closed to traffic. [with] Tight security measures are in place here, with several security checkpoints in place, and thousands of people have already been seen pouring into the area. ”
He reported that guests at the commemoration included Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, Turkey’s vice president and foreign minister, India’s deputy prime minister, the speaker of the Russian Duma, Iraq’s prime minister and a representative of the Afghan Taliban.
“I come here in the name of the Palestinian people, in the name of the resistance in Gaza… to offer my condolences,” Haniyeh told the crowd, who said he met Raisi in Tehran during Ramadan and heard the late president say Palestine was a key issue for the Islamic world.
Khamenei declared five days of national mourning. Memorial services for Raisi and his entourage began Tuesday in the city of Tabriz and Qom, the center of Shiite clerics.
After Wednesday’s procession, Raisi’s body will be taken to his hometown of Mashhad in the northeast, where he will be buried after a funeral ceremony at the Imam Reza shrine.
The remains of others who died in the accident will also be sent to their hometowns for burial.
investigation
State television announced Raisi’s death early on Monday, a day after his helicopter crashed into a mist-shrouded mountainside in northwestern Iran while en route to the city of Tabriz.
A search and rescue operation was launched with support from Turkey, Russia and the European Union.
Questions have been raised about whether Raisi, Amirabdollahian and others should have traveled in the two-bladed Bell 212, which is believed to be decades old.
Foreign sanctions against Iran dating back to the 1979 revolution and subsequent support for Iran’s nuclear program and the so-called “Axis of Resistance” have made it difficult for the country to obtain aircraft parts and new aircraft.
The country’s army chief of staff, General Mohammad Bagheri, has ordered an investigation into the cause of the helicopter crash.
Raisi was elected president in 2021 and was widely expected to succeed Ayatollah Khamenei as supreme leader.
Wednesday’s march carried a giant banner honoring the late president as a “martyr of service” and “servant of the less fortunate.”
But he left a complicated legacy, overseeing a deepening economic crisis and a harsh crackdown on mass protests that erupted after the death of 22-year-old Martha Amini in police custody in 2020.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, has appointed Vice President Mohammad Mokbel (68) as interim president until June 28 elections to choose Raisi’s successor.
“Iranian society is deeply divided along political lines,” Al Jazeera’s Serdar said.
“Voter turnout has been dropping steadily in recent elections. Voter turnout is one of the main sources of political legitimacy for our political system here, but turnout has fallen and many people are losing confidence in elections. “We can see that we are losing a lot of people,” he said.
“The political system here intends to mobilize all means and capabilities to increase voter turnout and show that the people are united behind the political system.”
