‘Death to Israel’ chants as Ayatollah leads huge funeral service for Iran ‘butcher’ president killed in chopper crash
CROWDS led by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh chanted "death to Israel" before the funeral of Iran's late president Ebrahim Raisi this morning.
Tehran residents were today urged by officials to attend the funeral of "the martyr of service", as huge banners went up hailing the fallen.
Iran, under Raisi's leadership, has armed the savage militant group throughout its ongoing bloody war with Israel in the Gaza Strip.
Senior Hamas leader Haniyeh today told Iranians gathered ahead of the late president's funeral of when he first met Raisi in Tehran.
He said: "I come in the name of the Palestinian people, in the name of the resistance factions of Gaza … to express our condolences."
Tens of thousands of Iranians filled the streets of Iran's capital this morning to join the funeral processions of Raisi - and seven members of his entourage - who died in a helicopter crash on Sunday.
Mourners were seen clutching portraits of "The Butcher" Raisi in the centre of the city, in and near the University of Tehran, where Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is today leading prayers.
The caskets of the dead, including Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, were draped in Iranian flags with their pictures on them.
Huge banners were strung up in the capital hailing the late president as "the martyr of service", while others bid "farewell to the servant of the disadvantaged".
Tehran residents received phone messages urging them to "attend the funeral of the martyr of service".
The officials' helicopter crashed on a fog-shrouded mountainside in northern Iran as the group travelled home after attending the inauguration of a dam project on Iran's border with Azerbaijan.
Search and rescue personnel, aided by Turkey, Russia and the European Union, worked overnight in blizzard conditions to try and locate the missing helicopter and president.
State television announced Raisi's death early on Monday.
The former president, 63, was widely expected to succeed 85-year-old Khamenei as supreme leader.
Funeral plans for The Butcher
OFFICIALS have outlined the plan for a three-day funeral for Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi who was killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday.
The funeral is to be split into several stages, with the first ceremony to begin on Tuesday.
Here is a breakdown of the elaborate funeral plans:
- The first ceremony begins at 9.30am local time (7am UK time) on Tuesday in the northwestern city of Tabriz
- Raisi's body is moved to the religious city of Qom
- A second procession begins in Qom at 4.30pm local time (2pm UK time)
- The bodies of Raisi and others killed in the helicopter crash are taken to Tehran
- Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei leads congregational prayers during an official funeral ceremony
- Raisi's body is transferred to Birjand on Thursday morning
- The president's body is taken to Mashhad, his home city, where he will be buried in the shrine of the eighth Shia Imam Reza on Thursday evening
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