Iran elections will be held at the end of June
Tens of thousands of Iranians attended farewells for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, whose death in a helicopter crash on a fog-shrouded mountain on Sunday revealed a potentially volatile moment in Iranian politics.
President Raisi died along with seven others, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, whom Hamas on Wednesday proclaimed “minister of the resistance.”
The Guardian reported that amid chaotic crowd scenes, the coffins of the dead were shown to people gathered for the funeral, while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led a prayer at Tehran University, where he hugged Raisi's grandchildren and called on Iranians to remember their devoted servant. However, the British publication notes, many Iranians revile Raisi for his role in the murder of thousands of political prisoners during his political career.
A crowd of loyalists chanted “death to Israel” as coffins draped in the Iranian flag were carried through the capital as part of five days of national mourning.
After the religious ceremony, Khamenei met with regional and Gulf leaders, as well as Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas's political office. Naim Qassem, deputy head of the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah, also attended the funeral ceremony.
Speaking about pro-Palestinian protests in American, European and Japanese universities, Ayatollah Khamenei told Haniyeh: “Who would have thought that one day in Japan there would be demonstrations in support of Palestine with slogans in Persian saying ‘Death to Israel.’
He said that ”God's promise“ erase”Israel from the face of the earth will come true“ just as God’s promise to the mother of the prophet Moses came true: “By the grace of God, the day will come when Palestine will be formed from the river to the sea.”
Ismail Haniyeh conveyed to Khamenei what he told the late Iranian Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian that he was considered the foreign minister of the resistance. Haniyeh also addressed the crowd.
He spoke just two days after International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan announced he was seeking an arrest warrant against Haniyeh for war crimes against the Israeli people.
< p>Iran's Supreme Leader also promised that acting President Mohammad Mokhber would continue to pursue the same policies towards Israel.
Mokhber was one of the leading officials who stood at the coffin and wept openly during the ceremony. The presidential elections are scheduled for June 29, writes The Guardian.
Speculation about the cause of the helicopter crash continues. In a lengthy report, Gholam Hossein Esmaili, who was flying on one of the other two helicopters accompanying Raisi, told state television that the weather was good when the plane took off. But Raisi's helicopter disappeared into the thick clouds, and the others were unable to contact the helicopter by radio, forcing them to land at a nearby copper mine.
Neither Amir Abdollahian nor his bodyguard on board responded to the call, Esmaili said. calls, but Tabriz cleric Mohammad Ali Al-Hashim answered two calls on his mobile phone.
“When we discovered the scene, the condition of the bodies indicated that Raisi and his other comrades died instantly, but Al-Hashim died a few hours later,” he said.
Two other helicopters took off relatively quickly above the clouds. Realizing that Raisi's helicopter was not with them, they turned around to look for it, but found nothing. It remains unclear whether there was an engine failure or pilot error in complete darkness.
It also became known that Turkish drones with night vision devices, sent by Ankara at the request of Iran, did not find the crash site. The discovery was made by an Iranian ground rescue team.
On Wednesday in Tehran, Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri also took part in meetings with senior foreign officials, mainly from the region and the Gulf.
< p>One of Bagheri's first tasks will be to negotiate with Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN nuclear inspectorate, to provide UN inspectors with greater access to Iran's nuclear facilities. Grossi said talks on the future of inspections had been temporarily suspended because of Raisi's death.
The crowds in Tehran looked impressive, The Guardian acknowledged, although diplomats said they were noticeably smaller than at the march in honor of Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020. Raisi, more of an ascetic than an inspirational figure, was elected president in 2021 with the lowest turnout in a presidential election.
Recent Comments