Absence of three former presidents at the funeral

Beijing will continue to deepen its relations with Tehran and safeguard mutual interests, after a helicopter crash that killed President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister, Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.

“Regardless of how conditions change, Beijing will continue to deepen its strategic partnership with Tehran, safeguard the shared interests of both countries, and continue its efforts for peace in the region and the world,” Wang Yi told Mahdi Safari, Iran’s deputy foreign minister.

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Thousands of pro-regime supporters gathered in the Tehran University campus to pay their respects to the delegation who were all killed in a freak accident on the Azerbaijan border.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei led the prayers for the delegation which Included foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, due to be buried Thursday.

Dressed in black, attendees held photos of Raisi, a president whose tenure was marked by increasing authoritarian measures from hijab crackdowns to internet bans in addition to massive economic decline.

His legacy will remain one of brutality having been responsible for mass state-sanctioned killings in the 1980s. Thousands of dissidents were murdered and later, under Raisi’s presidency, more than 500 protesters were murdered by state forces during the uprising of 2022 and 2023 a record year for executions.

The ceremony saw Raisi and the delegation’s coffins journey from Tabriz to Tehran, and then on to the religious city of Qom before returning to Tehran as the regime paid homage to one of its loyal servants, having given over 40 years to the government as he climbed the ranks.

Raisi was being groomed to become the next supreme leader by the current dictator, Ali Khamenei, but under his failing policies he was increasingly pushed aside in recent months.

Raisi will be laid to rest in the religious city of Mashhad, his hometown, but Amir-Abdollahian will be buried in Shahr-e Rey, southern Tehran on Thursday.

Vice-president Mohammad Mokhber has stepped in as caretaker with presidential elections announced for June 28.

Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas's political bureau, Naim Qassem, deputy secretary-general of Hezbollah, and several other representatives of Iran's proxy groups attended the ceremony for Raisi.

Haniyeh also delivered a speech to honor Raisi.

Iran’s Supreme leader Ali Khamenei performed funeral prayers at the university of Tehran on Wednesday (May 22) ahead of the funeral of President Ebrahim Raisi and his accompanying delegation, who died in a helicopter crash near the Azerbaijan border at the weekend.

Khamenei did not deliver any speech and immediately left the event. Pundits are comparing his demeanour to his emotional state when he led funeral prayer for IRGC-Quds force commander Qassem Soleimani.

Mourners wore black and held photos of the late president as they took part in the prayers.

The death of the president came at a time of deepening crisis between the clerical leadership and society at large over issues from tightening social and political controls to economic hardship.

Raisi's body was flown from Tabriz, the closest major city to the remote crash site, to Tehran airport before heading to the religious city of Qom. From there, it was returned to the capital to lie at Tehran's Grand Mosalla Mosque before being transferred to his hometown of Mashhad, in eastern Iran, for burial on Thursday (May 23).

Mourners attended a funeral ceremony for late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran on Wednesday.