A state funeral for Iran’s late president, foreign minister, and other officials was attended by several world leaders.
The memorial service took place in Tehran on Wednesday which saw dignitaries from the Middle East and beyond including Tunisian President Kais Saied, Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
The ceremony occurred just hours after hundreds of thousands participated in the funeral procession in the Iranian capital for Ebrahim Raisi and others who were killed in Sunday’s accident, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
The deaths from Sunday’s crash come at a politically sensitive time for Iran, both domestically and internationally. Raisi, aged 63, had been considered a potential successor to Iran’s supreme leader, the 85-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
His remains will be interred in his hometown of Mashhad, in the northeast of the country. In the wake of the deadly helicopter crash, Iran has scheduled the next presidential election for June 28.
