Millions gather in Iranian capital to mourn president, companions’ demise

The mourners are holding portraits of President Raisi and his companions, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian near Tehran University in central Tehran on the third day of five days of national mourning announced by the Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

Ayatollah Khamenei has led the prayers over bodies of President Raisi and his companions.

Foreign dignitaries are scheduled to arrive in Tehran later in the day to take part in the funeral ceremony.

Leader of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, who has attended the funeral cortege, praised President Raisi for putting the Palestinian issue on top of the priorities for Iran, adding, “We are certain that the Islamic Republic will continue the policy of supporting Palestine until the liberation of Al-Quds.”

President Raisi and his companions were in a helicopter that crashed in northwestern Iran on a fog-shrouded mountainside on the way to the city of Tabriz after the inauguration of a dam project on the border with the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The demised Iranian president will be laid to rest in his hometown Mashhad, in Imam Reza’s shrine, on Thursday while Amirabdollahian will be buried in Shah Abdul Azim’s shrine in Shahr-e Rey, south of Tehran.