Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was buried today in the holy city of Mashhad in the northeast of the country, where thousands of mourners filled the streets for the funeral. This happened four days after the president died in a helicopter crash, reported Reuters, quoted by BTA.
Raisi, 65, was widely seen as a possible successor to 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who holds Iran's highest office. Mohammad Mohaber, who is the first vice president, will serve as interim president until the June 28 election.
The ceremony was attended by Iranian politicians and military, as well as clerics. Flowers were thrown from the mourners to the coffin, which moved slowly on a truck, before it was buried in the “Immam Reza” shrine. – the largest Islamic shrine in the country. Raisi himself was born precisely in Mashhad.
Earlier, thousands paid their last respects as his casket was carried in a motorcade through the eastern city of Birjand.
Eight passengers and crew were killed when the helicopter crashed in mountainous terrain near the border with Azerbaijan. Among them was Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian. Iran announced five days of mourning for Raisi.
A memorial ceremony was also held for Amir Abdollahian at the Foreign Ministry in Tehran, where Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Khani described him as a martyr who, despite the vicissitudes of time, managed to “keep the spirit of the Revolution (the 1979 Islamic - note ed.) in the Foreign Ministry“.
Amir Abdolakhian was buried south of Tehran in the “Shah Abdolazim“ in the city of Ray, a mausoleum where famous Iranian politicians and artists are buried.