Iran Buries Late President at Shrine in Mashhad
Iran’s late President, Ebrahim Raisi, is being laid to rest in his home city of Mashhad, four days after his untimely death in a helicopter crash.
The 63-year-old hard-line cleric will be interred at the holy shrine of Imam Reza, a revered figure in Shia Islam.
Television images have shown large crowds gathering in one of Mashhad’s main streets in anticipation of the burial ceremony.
Sunday’s helicopter crash in Iran’s mountainous north-west occurred during bad weather and resulted in the deaths of seven other individuals, including Late President
Raisi’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. Amir-Abdollahian was buried on Thursday at the Shah Abdolazim shrine in Rey, a southern suburb of Tehran.
Raisi’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. Amir-Abdollahian was buried on Thursday at the Shah Abdolazim shrine in Rey, a southern suburb of Tehran.
Late president Raisi’s burial at the gold-domed Imam Reza Shrine, a memorial to the eighth Shia imam and the holiest site in Iran, follows several days of commemorative ceremonies. On Wednesday, leaders and dignitaries from Iran’s allies and neighboring countries attended a major event in Tehran. They were welcomed by late president Raisi’s former First Vice President, Mohammad Mokhber, who at 68 will serve as acting president until the scheduled election on June 28.
Representatives from the “Axis of Resistance,” a coalition of armed groups supported by Iran with weapons, training, and funds, were also in attendance.
These included Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Iran-backed Palestinian group Hamas; Naim Qassem, the deputy secretary-general of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement; Mohammed Abdulsalam, the spokesman for Yemen’s Houthis; and Faleh al-Fayad, the head of Iraq’s paramilitary Popular Mobilisation Forces.
An Iranian presidency handout photo showed large crowds gathered near the gold-domed Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad ahead of Ebrahim Raisi’s burial
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led prayers for those killed in the crash.
Late president Raisi, known to be close to the 85-year-old Khamenei, was widely regarded as a potential successor.
Khamenei, as the ultimate authority in the Islamic Republic, holds significant influence over the country’s political landscape.
Noticeably absent from the Wednesday ceremony were senior Western officials, reflecting the strained relations between their countries and Iran.
While tens of thousands have participated in the funeral processions, which the government and state media have portrayed as demonstrations of national unity, many more have chosen to stay home.
Some individuals even celebrated Raisi’s death, despite warnings from prosecutors that such actions could lead to prosecution.
Late president Raisi was a deeply polarizing figure. He faced widespread disdain for overseeing the violent crackdown on the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests that erupted in 2022, a year after he assumed office.
Additionally, there were calls for an international investigation into his alleged role in the “death committee,” which ordered the mass executions of political prisoners in the 1980s.
His presidency was also marked by severe economic hardships and an unprecedented military confrontation with Israel last month, which heightened fears of a regional conflict.
Iranian authorities are still investigating the cause of the helicopter crash that claimed Raisi’s life. Officials have reported that the decades-old, US-made Bell 212 helicopter hit a mountainside as it flew toward the north-western city of Tabriz in fog and heavy rain. Raisi was accompanied by several high-profile individuals, including Amir-Abdollahian, the governor of East Azerbaijan province, Malek Rahmati, and Tabriz’s Friday prayer leader, Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Al-e Hashem, along with the head of the presidential security team and the helicopter’s three crew members. They were returning from the inauguration of two dams on the border with Azerbaijan.
As Iran grapples with the sudden loss of its president, the nation is also facing the uncertainty of what lies ahead.
The upcoming election on June 28 will be a pivotal moment, determining the future leadership amidst ongoing economic challenges and geopolitical tensions. Raisi’s death has undeniably left a significant impact on Iran, reflecting both the country’s internal divisions and the broader regional dynamics in which it is enmeshed.