Iran’s Supreme Leader Leads Funeral Prayers for President

State media in Iran stated that the leader of Hamas was in Tehran to attend the funeral. It wasn’t clear at the time the number of foreign dignitaries who will be attending.

By Cassandra Vinograd, Leily Nikounazar

May 22, 2024 03:05 PM

Crowds packed the streets of Tehran and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, performed funeral prayers on Wednesday for the country’s president, with senior officials from the Iranian-backed militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah joining the commemorations.

The presence of senior leaders from Hamas and Hezbollah — two major Iranian proxy organizations throughout the Middle East — alongside an array of officials from outside the West provided a striking illustration of Iran’s international standing in an incredibly turbulent time for the country.

President Ebrahim Raisi, 63, died in an accident involving a helicopter together with the country’s the foreign minister Hossein Abdollahian 60, and five others who were traveling with them on Sunday. Ayatollah Khamenei proclaimed the mourning period to last for five days and funeral services started on Tuesday with a funeral procession that took place in Tabriz the nearest major city to the site of the crash situated in northwest Iran. The remains of the deceased Mr. Raisi and of the other victims were later transported into the city of holy Qom and then to Tehran the capital prior to Wednesday’s celebrations.

Security forces in Iran have imposed strict traffic rules in the city, the Tehran Police chief Col. Abdolfazl Mousavipour reported to state-run television on the night of. State TV also stated that public transportation would be completely free on Wednesday officially declared as a day of rest for the nationin order to make it simpler for people to go to funerals.

The morning of Wednesday, the state-owned media showed footage of massive crowds descending towards Tehran’s University of Tehran, where the flag-draped coffins sat in a huge hall.

Ayatollah Khamenei, who is 85 was escorted into the funeral by an entourage of supporters, and laid his cane on the coffins prior to performing prayers. The words he spoke by loudspeakers, bringing cheers to those outside, who were bowing their heads in prayer, state-run footage from the media revealed.

He. Raisi had been considered to be a contender for the position of supreme leader who is said to be suffering from declining health. Following the prayer, Ayatollah Khamenei embraced relatives of Mr. Raisi, video on the state-owned news channel showed, and stroking a child’s head.

A funeral procession was then underway, with a crowd lining the open-air truck that took coffins from Iran’s Azadi also known as Freedom Square. The square was lined with billboards with smiley President. Raisi. A lot of people carried photos of the president. Most were wearing black.

“If there is one thing that the Islamic Republic is truly adept at,” Ali Vaez, the Iran director of the International Crisis Group, said that it’s “to organize funerals and bring its core constituents to the streets.”

“It’s a show of force aimed at showcasing the regime’s legitimacy to supporters at home and enemies abroad,” he said.

A formal ceremony scheduled for 4:00 p.m. at local time, and that state media reported would comprise greater than forty ” high-ranking foreign delegations,” comprising 10-state headsis likely to serve the same purpose.

State-owned news channels broadcast footage that proclaimed arriving passengers at the principal Tehran airport and the red carpet was greeted by Presidents Kais Saied of Tunisia, Kais Saied and Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon. The premier of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, also walked through the airport, along with the Syrian prime minister, Hussein Arnous; and Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif.

“The participating foreign delegates reflect the state of Iran’s relations with the outside world: low-level Western representation along with high-level participation by Iran’s neighbors and nonstate allies,” Mr. Vaez said.

It was notable that there were no top official of China or Russia in light of the fact that the Mr. The supporters of Raisi had been praising him for shifting Iran’s policies away the West and towards more cooperation in partnership with Beijing in Beijing and Moscow. China has sent Zhang Guoqing, a “special representative” of the president Xi Jinping, to Tehran on Wednesday. Vyacheslav Volodin who is the head of the Lower House of the Russian Parliament, was said to be the top Russian official. Moscow.

But, according to Barbara Slavin, an Iran expert and a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center, a think center located in Washington The “fairly modest showing of heads of state” was likely an indication of the Mr. Raisi’s position in the political arena which was more like that one of the premier ministers, rather than the title of president.

“Raisi was not the head of state — the supreme leader is,” Ms. Slavin said, adding that as such the funeral “would not be appropriate” to invite President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia or Mr. Xi, China’s leader for them to go out at funeral.

The guests included high-ranking representatives from Hamas and Hezbollah who attended the ceremony on Wednesday, amid shouts from “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” from the crowd.

In his speech during the funeral ceremony, Ismail Haniyeh, who is the leader of Hamas’s political wing after its exile, spoke of a meeting the late Mr. Raisi in Tehran during the holy month of Ramadan. At the time of the meeting the president. Haniyeh said, Mr. Raisi emphasized Iran’s “unchangeable” dedication to the Palestinian cause, as reported by Iranian the state-run media.

His presence. Haniyeh — who was later seen on state media, reportedly having a private meeting together with Ayatollah Khamenei — occurred in spite of an imminent warrant for his arrest of the International Criminal Court on allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity. (Iran has not a party to the law that created the court.)

Hamas is an important element of the proxy network and proxies that Iran has created and backed throughout the area. The terrorist group’s attack on Israel in October, and Israel’s subsequent conflict in Gaza significantly intensified tensions which, in the last month, pushed Israel as well as Iran to trade rare direct threats.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah that this week honored Ms. Raisi as a “big brother,” also sent Naim Qassem Naim Qassem, the group’s deputy secretary general, to the funeral.

As thousands of supporters of the government were present at the memorial and funeral services in Iran however, a lot of Iranians who are against the government and slammed the late Mr. Raisi for his record of human rights violations, showed an apathy, and some even celebrated his death.

The crash of a helicopter resulted in Iran lacking two most prominent officials at a highly volatile moment in. The clerical regime of Iran is struggling with the effects of an financial crisis and widespread discontent in the country.

There are also concerns about how Iran will proceed with its programme to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran has made nuclear fuel that has been enriched to levels that are just shy of the amount required to make numerous bombs. Just days before his death the late Mr. Amir Abdollahian met with the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi , who was seeking more access to Tehran’s nuclear plants.

On Wednesday the 13th of March, the president. Grossi said that Iran’s mourning phase had resulted in an “temporary interruption” in discussions regarding collaboration. He informed the news organization Reuters that he hoped that the interruption will “be over in a matter of days.”

The investigation is underway to determine the cause of the crashstate media have claimed that it was the result of an “technical failure,” and Iran’s military has been leading an investigation with more information have been revealed about its last moments.

State media stated they had reported that Gholamhossein Esmaili from Iran’s President’s chief of staff, declared that the weather was normal as the helicopter left on Sunday. The Mr. Esmaili was in one of two helicopters that were traveling together with Mr. Raisi’s, and returned safely.

After 45 minutes of the flight about 45 minutes into the flight, the pilot said that about 45 minutes into the flight. Esmaili said, the pilot of Mr. Raisi’s helicopter instructed the aircraft in the group to raise their altitude in order to avoid cloud. However, the pilot of Mr. Raisi’s aircraft vanished.

He. Esmaili told state TV that a series of attempts to establish contact via radio unsuccessful. The passenger aboard his. Raisi’s helicopter regional prayer leader in Tabriz finally answered the phone and informed him that the helicopter been destroyed. The prayer leader Mohammad Ali Ale Hashem later passed away.

Farnaz Fassihi and Euan Ward contributed reporting.