(CNN) — The president of Iran, Ibrahim Raisi, was buried next to the Imam Reza Shrine, in the northeastern city of Mashhad, according to images released this Thursday by state media.
The coffin carrying President Raisi circled for the last time the gold and silver shrine, considered the holiest Islamic site within Iran and the resting place of Imam Ali Reza, the eighth imam of Shiite Islam, according to state media IRNA.
“After the glorious funeral ceremonies held in Tabriz, [Qom]Tehran, Birjand and Mashhad, President Raisi’s body surrounded the Imam Reza Shrine for the last time and was buried,” the semi-official Iranian media Tasnim reported.
The funeral ceremony for the President of Iran, Ibrahim Raisi, began this Thursday morning (local time) at the Imam Reza Shrine in the city of Mashhad.
Government officials and cabinet members sat inside the large room, which is at capacity and has been closed, according to state media. Many of them could be seen beating their chests as the coffin carrying the late President Raisi was brought into the room.
The current Friday prayer leader at the shrine is President Raisi’s father-in-law, Seyyed Ahmad Alamolhoda.
Early Thursday, mourners packed the boulevard leading to the shrine, throwing flowers and cloths at the funeral truck as it slowly moved through the crowd, footage showed.
State media estimated the crowd numbered in the millions. CNN has not been able to verify the size of the crowd.
Mourners were doused with water in an effort to cool the crowd. The Iranian Red Crescent served more than 400 people during the procession in Mashhad, according to the state agency IRNA.
The coffin of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrived earlier this Thursday in Mashhad.
Two other coffins with officials who died in the fatal helicopter accident also arrived in the city.
The coffin of the president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, in Mashhad on May 23, 2024. (Credit: AFP/IRAN PRESS)
Thousands of people dressed in black and bearing Raisi’s image crowded the streets of Mashhad for the funeral while a truck carrying the president’s coffin slowly headed towards his final resting place, images broadcast by state media showed.
Palestinian flags and images of Iranian commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, killed in a US airstrike in 2020, were also seen along the route, according to state media footage.
President Raisi was born in Mashhad in 1960. He headed the powerful charity known as Astan-e Quds-e Razavi, which manages the massive Imam Reza Shrine, one of the city’s main Islamic holy sites.
Raisi was also the supreme leader’s representative in the province.
Iran’s Foreign Minister buried
Iranians carry the coffin of Iran’s late Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian during a funeral ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran on May 23, 2024. (Credit: AFP via Getty Images)
At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Tehran, large crowds of mourners attended the funeral ceremony of Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, whose coffin was carried through the streets to his burial place at the Shah Abdol-Azim Shrine from the city of Rey.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Nasser Kanaani, told the press that “the death of Amir-Abdollahian is a loss for Iran’s diplomatic apparatus, but there will be no changes in the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” .
The supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, had declared a five-day mourning on Monday after confirming the death of Raisi, Amir-abdollahian and seven other people in a helicopter accident that occurred on Sunday.
