Iran Mourns Late President Raisi with Massive Funeral

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers for late president Ebrahim Raisi as huge crowds thronged the capital Tehran for his funeral procession.

Flanked by top officials, Khamenei said prayers over the coffins of the eight dead from Sunday's helicopter crash, who also included foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

Raisi's helicopter crashed into a fog-shrouded mountainside in northwestern Iran on Sunday as he headed back to the city of Tabriz after attending a ceremony on the border with Azerbaijan.

A huge search and rescue operation was launched, involving help from the European Union, Russia and Turkey. State television announced Raisi's death early on Monday.

The Iranian military said that domestically produced drones had played the key role in locating the crash site.

Nearly 60 senior officials from some 50 countries were expected to attend an official ceremony in the Iran International Conference Center in Tehran to pay respect to the bodies of President Raeisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and other people martyred in the helicopter crash.

The delegations included 10 heads of state and 20 ministers as well as parliament speakers and special representatives dispatched by foreign governments to attend the ceremony.

The Qatari Emir, Turkmenistan’s National Leader, presidents of Tunisia and Tajikistan, prime ministers of Iraq, Armenia, Qatar, and Azerbaijan as well as parliament speakers from Iraq, Russia, Algeria Uzbekistan Kazakhstan and Lebanon were among senior officials representing their countries in the funeral ceremony.

Raeisi, Amirabdollahian, two top officials of the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan, two bodyguards and a crew were aboard a helicopter that was returning from a dam inauguration ceremony on Iran’s border with the Republic of Azerbaijan when it crashed into forests in Varzaghan region.