Martyred President Loyal Nation
Hundreds of thousands of Iranians, many of them dressed in black, turned out in the city of Tabriz on Tuesday to mourn president Ebrahim Raisi and seven members of his entourage who passed away in a helicopter crash on Sunday.
Waving Iranian flags and portraits of the late president, mourners set off from a central square in the northwestern city of Tabriz, where Raisi was headed when his helicopter crashed.
They walked behind a lorry carrying the coffins of Raisi and those who died with him, who also included Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Friday prayers leader of Tabriz Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Al-e-Hashem and Governor of East Azarbaijan Malek Rahmati.
Iranians also gathered in other cities to mourn the victims of the tragic incident.
“We, the members of the government, who had the honor to serve this beloved president, the hardworking president, pledge to our dear people and Leader to follow the path of these martyrs,” Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said while addressing the ceremony.
“Everyone has come to bid farewell to the martyred president and his companions regardless of their faction, ethnicity or language,” said Tabriz lawmaker Masoud Pezeshkian.
The helicopter lost communications while it was on its way back to Tabriz after Raisi attended the inauguration of a joint dam project on the Aras River, which forms part of the border with Azerbaijan, in a ceremony with his counterpart Ilham Aliyev.
A massive search and rescue operation was launched on Sunday when two other helicopters flying alongside Raisi’s lost contact with his aircraft in bad weather.
Rescuers found the wreckage of the helicopter early on Monday after hours of extensive search which involved more than 70 teams.
Investigation
Iran’s Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Hossein Baqeri ordered an investigation into the cause of the crash. No cause has yet been offered by Iran’s government for the crash.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in a message on Monday declared five days of national mourning. He also extended his condolences to the Iranian nation over the martyrdom of Raisi and his entourage.
The Leader noted that the tragic incident happened when Raeisi and his team were making an attempt to serve the Iranian people.
The entire period of responsibility of this noble and devoted man, both during the short term of the presidency and before that, was completely spent in non-stop efforts to serve the people, the country and Islam, he emphasized.
Ayatollah Khamenei also assigned Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, 68, as caretaker president until a presidential election can be held.
Snap election
State media later announced that the election will be held on June 28.
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri, who served as deputy to Amir-Abdollahian, was named acting foreign minister.
From Tabriz, Raisi’s body was flown to Tehran to an honor guard at the airport. Then, his boy was flown to the holy city of Qom later Tuesday before being moved to Tehran during the evening.
Processions will be held in the capital on Wednesday morning before the Leader leads prayers at a farewell ceremony.
Raisi’s body will then be flown to his home city of Mashhad, in the northeast, where he will be buried on Thursday evening after funeral rites.
Raisi, 63, had been president since 2021. He succeeded Hassan Rouhani, at a time when the economy was battered by US sanctions imposed over Iran’s nuclear activities.
Meanwhile Tuesday, Iran’s new Assembly of Experts opened its first session after an election that decided the new assembly, a panel of which both Raisi and the late Tabriz Friday prayer Mohammad Ali Ale-Heshem were members. A flower-ringed portrait sat on the seat Raisi would have occupied at the meeting of the 88-member panel.
Messages of condolence
Condolence messages also flooded in from many countries and international bodies around the region. Several countries also declared days of mourning.
Members of the UN Security Council, including the United States, observed a minute of silence on Monday in memory of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his entourage.
On Tuesday, foreign ministers and diplomats from around a dozen of Iran’s political and economic partners also paid tribute to late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at a meeting of a China-led regional bloc.
Envoys from Russia, China, India and Pakistan were among those who stood for a minute’s silence at the start of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.
“Despite these difficult times, Iranian representatives are taking part in this ministerial council for the first time,” Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in a statement released by his office.
Iranian President Mohammad-Ali Rajai, the only other president to die in office when he was killed in a 1981 bombing, was buried in Tehran.
Iranian presidents including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Abolhasan Banisadr both survived their own helicopter crashes while in office.