Iran: The holy city of Mashhad to host the funeral rites for late president Ebrahim Raisi

Ebrahim Raisi is to be buried on Thursday in the holy city of Mashhad, four days after he and six other people—including the late Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi and foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian—passed away in a helicopter crash.

Raisi’s coffin was transported to Mashhad in northeastern Iran after a funeral procession this morning in the eastern city of Birjand, where thousands of people paid their condolences as his remains were escorted through the streets in a motorcade.

In Mashhad, the city where Raisi was born, a guard of honor stood to salute when the aircraft bearing his coffin touched down. The holiest Islamic structure, the gold-domed Imam Reza shrine, will be Raisi’s final resting place.

Regarded as a possible successor to Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Raisi, 63, occupied a position of supreme power. Mohammad Mokhber, the first vice president, is serving as the interim president until the June election.

Eight of the passengers and crew perished in the helicopter crash, which occurred in a mountainous area close to the Azerbaijani border.

At a ceremony held at the foreign ministry in Tehran to honor Amirabdollahian, acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani praised him as a martyr who had “guaranteed the revolutionary nature of the foreign ministry.”

Amirabdollahian will be buried in the Shah Abdolazim tomb, which is located south of Tehran and contains the mausoleums of notable Iranian politicians and artists.

Iran observed five days of mourning for Raisi, who carried out the hardline policies of his master Khamenei. These included strengthening religious control, tightening restrictions on opponents, and adopting a tough stance on foreign policy issues like holding nuclear talks with Washington to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement.

The date of the presidential contest has been set for June 28.

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