Iran’s supreme chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, carried out funeral prayers on Wednesday for the nation’s president who was killed in a helicopter crash, as hundreds of Iranians packed the streets of Tehran on an official day of mourning.
The president, Ebrahim Raisi, 63, was killed together with Iran’s overseas minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, 60, and 5 others touring with them on Sunday. Funeral observances started on Tuesday with a procession in Tabriz, the closest large metropolis to the crash website in northwestern Iran. The our bodies of Mr. Raisi and of the others killed have been then taken to the holy metropolis of Qom and to Tehran, the capital, forward of Wednesday’s occasions.
Iran’s safety forces carried out tight restrictions on automobile motion and parking within the space the place funeral processions would start, the Tehran police chief, Col. Abdolfazl Mousavipour, instructed state tv in a single day. State tv additionally reported that public transportation could be free on Wednesday — declared a nationwide vacation — to allow individuals to attend the funeral.
On Wednesday morning, state information media broadcast footage of big crowds making their strategy to the College of Tehran, the place the flag-draped coffins have been housed in a big corridor.
Ayatollah Khamenei, 85, entered with en entourage, laying down his cane in entrance of the coffins earlier than performing the prayers. His phrases have been carried on loudspeakers to crowds standing exterior who bowed their heads in prayer, state media footage confirmed.
Mr. Raisi had been thought-about a possible candidate to succeed the supreme chief, who’s in declining well being.
A funeral procession shall be held in Tehran afterward Wednesday earlier than what the state information media have billed as a ceremony “with the presence of high-ranking overseas dignitaries” at 4 p.m. native time.
It was not instantly clear what number of overseas leaders would attend. The Kremlin has stated that it’ll not be sending a delegation. Turkish officers are, nonetheless, anticipated to attend — and Iranian state information media reported that Ismail Haniyeh, who leads Hamas’s political wing from exile, was in Tehran to attend the observances.
Mr. Haniyeh’s presence got here regardless of the prospect of a looming arrest warrant from the Worldwide Prison Court docket on allegations of warfare crimes and crimes towards humanity. Hamas is a key a part of the community of proxies that Iran has developed and supported within the Center East. The militant group’s assault on Israel in October and Israel’s ensuing warfare in Gaza dramatically escalated tensions that final month pushed Israel and Iran to change uncommon direct assaults.
As hundreds of presidency supporters attended the funeral and memorial companies throughout Iran, many atypical Iranians who oppose the federal government and despised Mr. Raisi for his file of human rights violations confirmed apathy and a few even cheered his loss of life.
As investigators look into what triggered the helicopter crash — state media reported that it was due to a “technical failure,” and Iran’s navy is main a fee — extra particulars have emerged about its last moments.
State information media reported that Gholamhossein Esmaili, Iran’s presidential chief of workers, had stated that climate circumstances have been regular when the helicopter took off on Sunday. Mr. Esmaili was in one of many two different helicopters touring with Mr. Raisi’s that made it residence safely.
About 45 minutes into the flight, Mr. Esmaili stated, the pilot of Mr. Raisi’s helicopter instructed the convoy of plane to extend altitude to keep away from a cloud. However Mr. Raisi’s helicopter disappeared.
Mr. Esmaili instructed state TV that a number of makes an attempt to make radio contact failed. One of many passengers on Mr. Raisi’s helicopter, an area prayer chief from Tabriz, ultimately answered a cellphone and stated that the helicopter had crashed. The prayer chief, Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem, later died.
Farnaz Fassihi contributed reporting.
