Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei leads funeral prayers for President Ebrahim Raisi, others in Tehran
By BASHIR ADEFAKA with Agencies
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and others, killed in a helicopter crash Sunday May 19, 2024, was given a grand farewell on Wednesday May 22 in Tehran, the nation’s capital, with prayers led by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Thousands of citizens and supporters of the administration gathered in the Tehran University campus to pay their respects to the Raisi-led fallen heros, who were all killed in a freak accident on the Azerbaijan border.
Supreme Leader Khamenei led the prayers for the delegation which Included foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, due to be buried Thursday.
Dressed in black, attendees held photos of Raisi, a president whose tenure ensured compliance, increasingly, with measures taken ranging from hijab to internet bans even as he continued to move Iran forward amidst economic challenges occasioned by United States of America-led sanctions.
Although his demise will change nothing in how the country is governed neither will Iran’s foreign policy will be affected, Raisi as President of the Islamic Republic will be remembered for his decisions to stand up against Israeli oppression and genocide against the defenceless children, women and innocent men of Palestine.
The ceremony saw Raisi and the delegation’s coffins journey from Tabriz to Tehran, and then on to the religious city of Qom before returning to Tehran as the regime paid homage to one of its loyal servants, having given over 40 years to the government as he climbed the ranks.
Raisi was being groomed to become the next Supreme Leader by the current occupant, Ali Khamenei, but that has now become history.
President Raisi will be laid to rest in the religious city of Mashhad, his hometown, but Amir-Abdollahian will be buried in Shahr-e Rey, southern Tehran on Thursday May 23.
Vice President Mohammad Mokhber has stepped in as interim President with presidential elections announced for June 28.
