Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers during the farewell ceremony on Wednesday in Tehran, on the eve of the burial of the head of state, killed in a helicopter crash.
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Tens of thousands of Iranians gathered on Wednesday, May 22, in the center of Tehran, to pay a final tribute to their president, Ebrahim Raïssi, killed on Sunday in a helicopter crash. The political leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Ismaïl Haniyeh, and the number two of Lebanese Hezbollah, Naïm Qassem, joined the ceremony.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led prayers at the farewell ceremony for the president and seven other crash victims, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. He was surrounded by leading Shiite clergy, members of the government, including interim President Mohammad Mokhber, and the highest-ranking members of the army and Revolutionary Guards.
The Hamas leader said “convinced that the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue its support for the Palestinian people”during a brief speech in front of the audience, in which some people shouted “Death to Israel”. Hamas and Hezbollah are part of the “axis of resistance” which, notably with the Yemeni Houthi rebels, is supported by Tehran in the context of the war in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and Israel.
This Wednesday was declared a public holiday and residents of Tehran received messages on their phones calling them to “attend the funeral of the martyr”. Several countries, such as Russia, Turkey and Iraq, announced that they would be represented at a ceremony organized in the afternoon with foreign dignitaries, but not at the level of heads of state. The late president will be buried Thursday in Mashhad, his hometown.
