Late President Ebrahim Raisi Laid to Rest in Mashhad

Mashhad, The Gulf Observer: The late President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, was laid to rest in his hometown of Mashhad, which hosts the holy shrine of the eighth Shia imam, Imam Reza (AS).

Raisi’s body arrived in Mashhad on Thursday morning, where a large funeral procession took place. Huge crowds gathered to pay their respects as the procession reached Imam Reza’s holy shrine, where the late president was interred.

Mohammad-Reza Ghalandar, the mayor of Mashhad, estimated that around three million people attended the mourning ceremony. The attendees included not only Iranians from various cities but also mourners from neighboring countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkiye. Raisi, along with his Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and several other officials, perished on Sunday in a helicopter crash in Iran’s northwestern province of East Azarbaijan. They were traveling to Tabriz from the Azerbaijan Republic border, where Raisi had inaugurated a joint dam with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev.

Funeral processions for the martyrs were also held on Tuesday and Wednesday in the cities of Tabriz, Qom, and the capital Tehran. A memorial ceremony in Tehran on Wednesday afternoon was attended by dozens of high-ranking officials from other countries.

Raisi, 63, served as the eighth president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, elected in August 2021. Prior to his presidency, he held several prominent positions, including head of Iran’s Judiciary, member of the Expediency Council, vice chairman of the Assembly of Experts, and custodian of Astan Quds Razavi.