1000’s of Iranians turned out to mourn President Ebrahim Raisi within the metropolis of Tabriz on Tuesday, after he was killed in a helicopter crash close to the Azerbaijan border on the weekend alongside along with his international minister and 7 others.
State TV broadcast dwell pictures of mourners, lots of them wearing black, beating their chests whereas a truck lined in white flowers carrying the caskets wrapped within the nationwide flag was pushed slowly via the group.
“Everybody has come to bid farewell to the martyred president and his companions no matter their faction, ethnicity or language,” stated Tabriz lawmaker Masoud Pezeshkian.
Nonetheless, though state TV stated a big crowd appeared in Tabriz, some insiders see a stark distinction in public grief in contrast with previous commemorations for the deaths of different senior figures within the Islamic Republic’s 45-year historical past.
Whereas Iran proclaimed 5 days of mourning for Raisi, there was little of the emotional rhetoric that accompanied the loss of life of Qasem Soleimani, a senior commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards killed by a U.S. missile in 2020 in Iraq, whose funeral drew enormous crowds of mourners, weeping with sorrow and rage.
Raisi’s physique was flown from Tabriz, the closest main metropolis to the distant crash web site, to Tehran airport earlier than heading to the holy Shi’ite Muslim metropolis of Qom. From there, it’s going to return to the capital to lie at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla Mosque earlier than being transferred to his hometown of Mashahd, in jap Iran, for burial on Thursday.
Mourners carried posters bearing pictures of Raisi, International Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the Friday prayer chief of Tabriz metropolis and different officers who had been additionally killed within the crash.
DEEPENING CRISIS
The loss of life of the president got here at a time of deepening disaster between the clerical management and society at massive over points from tightening social and political controls to financial hardship.
To revive broken legitimacy following a historic low turnout of round 41% in March’s parliamentary election, Iran‘s rulers should fire up public enthusiasm to safe excessive participation within the early presidential election that might be held on June 28.
However Iranians nonetheless have painful reminiscences of the dealing with of nationwide unrest sparked by the loss of life in custody of a younger Iranian-Kurdish lady in 2022, which was quelled by a violent state crackdown involving mass detentions and even executions.
Widespread public anger at worsening residing requirements and pervasive graft might also maintain many Iranians at house.
Some analysts say that hundreds of thousands have misplaced hope that Iran‘s ruling clerics can resolve an financial disaster fomented by a mix of U.S. sanctions, mismanagement and corruption.
Raisi enacted the hardline insurance policies of his mentor, Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, aimed toward entrenching clerical energy, cracking down on opponents, and adopting a tricky line on international coverage points such because the nuclear talks with Washington to revive Iran‘s 2015 nuclear pact.
Any candidate getting into the race should first be vetted by the Guardian Council, a hardline watchdog that has usually disqualified even outstanding conservative and average officers, that means the broad path of coverage is unlikely to vary.
Whereas broadly seen as a number one candidate to take over from the 85-year-old supreme chief when he dies, two sources stated Raisi’s title had been taken off a listing of potential successors some six months in the past due to his sagging reputation.
Raisi’s loss of life has launched “nice uncertainty” within the succession, analysts stated, stirring rivalries within the hardliners’ camp over who will succeed Khamenei because the nation’s final authority.
