Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks in a Saturday meeting held in the capital Tehran with the families of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and six of their companions who lost their lives in a helicopter crash in the northwestern Iranian province of East Azarbaijan last week.
Pointing to the enemy’s propaganda and claims regarding the estrangement of Iranian people from the Islamic Republic, the Leader said, “This incident, before the very eyes of the world and in practice, proved the attachment and loyalty of the Iranian nation to the president and those who embodied the mottoes of the Revolution.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolution against the Western-backed Pahlavi dynasty was spearheaded by the late Imam Khomeini in 1979 and led to the establishment of the Islamic Republic.
Praising President Raisi as a manifestation of the mottoes of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei stated, “Mr. Raisi relied on the slogans of the Revolution and the words of the Imam from the very beginning when he ran for the elections, and the whole world knew him as the president of the Revolution.”
“When people support and honor this man in such a great way, it means supporting the slogans of the Revolution,” he stressed.
Ayatollah Khamenei noted that working for the people and serving the public was the most prominent feature of the martyrs of the incident.
“Martyr Raisi worked tirelessly day and night and was literally indefatigable,” the Leader added.
He touched on the epic funeral processions in the cities of Tabriz, Qom, Tehran, Shahr-e-Rey, Birjand, Mashhad, Maragheh, Zanjan and Najafabad, noting, “This glorious funeral showed that the Iranian nation is alive.”
Expressing his condolences to the families of the martyred individuals, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “Recounting the services and efforts of Mr. Raisi and Mr. Amirabdullahian in the domestic and foreign front is a long and detailed story.”
Iranians in their millions gathered in various cities across the country to commemorate the martyrdom of the late president and his companions as part of ceremonies held following the Leader’s declaration of five-day national mourning over the tragic loss.
Dozens of world leaders, presidents, ambassadors and international personalities as well as high-profile figures of the Axis of Resistance have over the past days participated in ceremonies across Iran to pay homage to the martyrs.
On Sunday, the helicopter carrying Raisi and his entourage crashed as it was on its way to Tabriz, the capital of Iran’s East Azarbaijan province, from a location on the border with the Republic of Azerbaijan where the Iranian president had opened a major dam project.
