Iran begins days of funeral ceremonies for President Raisi as investigators probe helicopter crash

The body of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has arrived in Tehran as part of funeral ceremonies scheduled to run over several days, according to state-run news agency IRNA.A video broadcast by state media shows the presidential plane arriving at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport, carrying Raisi’s coffin. Government and military officials lined a red carpet, and many could be seen publicly weeping as a military escort carried the coffin.

According to images published by state media, a seat on the presidential plane was left empty, covered only in black cloth and a picture of Raisi laid on it.

Raisi, a 63-year-old ultraconservative cleric who had once been seen as a potential successor to current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, died in a helicopter crash alongside other high-ranking officials, including the country’s foreign minister, on Sunday morning.

His death leaves the Islamic Republic’s hardline establishment facing an uncertain future as it navigates rising regional tensions and domestic discontent.

Tuesday began with funeral prayers and a procession in the northwestern city of Tabriz, the largest city in the mountainous northwestern region of Iran where the chopper crashed.Images released by state media showed large crowds dressed in black lining Martyr’s Square and surrounding streets in the rain as a large truck, adorned with flowers and draped in the Iranian flag, drove through the crowds carrying the coffins of Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and the others killed in Sunday’s helicopter crash.

In a speech in Tabriz on Tuesday, Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said Raisi and Amir-Abdollahian “set a model for brave service and diplomacy,” pointing to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

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