Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash, was laid to rest Thursday in his hometown of Mashhad after two days of funeral ceremonies attended by thousands. Raisi, 63, died on Sunday along with the Foreign Minister and six others when the helicopter they were on crashed in a mountainous area in the northwest of the country while returning from the inauguration of a dam near the Azerbaijan border. His final resting place will be at the shrine of Imam Reza, one of the Shia Imams, in northeastern Mashhad, where the late conservative president was born.
Images released by Iranian media on Wednesday showed officials in Mashhad preparing for the final day of the funeral. Large portraits of Raisi were displayed, black flags were raised, and Shia symbols adorned the streets of Iran's second-largest city, particularly around the shrine of Imam Reza.
Huge crowds participated in the funeral procession on Wednesday in the capital, Tehran, to bid a final farewell to the president, who was referred to by officials and the media as "the martyr." Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was widely expected to be succeeded by Raisi, led the funeral prayers for the late president and his companions, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian.
Abdollahian is also set to be buried on Thursday at the Shah Abdol Azim shrine in the Shahr-e Rey neighborhood south of the capital. Tunisian President Kais Saied, Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Hamas Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh attended the ceremony held on Wednesday afternoon, which saw representatives from around 60 countries, according to the IRNA news agency.
Representatives from EU countries were absent from the event, while officials from non-EU countries such as Belarus and Serbia participated. The Supreme Leader declared a five-day official mourning period and appointed Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, aged 68, as acting president until elections are held on June 28 to select a successor to Raisi.
Presidential elections were scheduled in Iran for next year, but Sunday’s incident raised questions about who would succeed Raisi, with some expressing concerns. A 31-year-old named Mohsen questioned during the funeral on Wednesday in Tehran, “How will we find someone like him? I am very worried about that. I believe we do not have anyone else of his stature.”
Raisi was elected in 2021, succeeding moderate Hassan Rouhani, at a time when the economy was suffering from the impact of U.S. sanctions regarding Iran's nuclear activities. Under Raisi's leadership, which was marked by a hardline conservative stance, Iran witnessed widespread protests and a worsening economic crisis.
In the wake of his death, condolences were offered by Russia and China, Iran’s allies, as well as other regional forces, and NATO also expressed its condolences, while the UN Security Council stood for a minute of silence. Messages of condolence also flowed in from Iran’s regional allies, particularly the Syrian government, the Palestinian Hamas movement, and Lebanese Hezbollah.
