By Ramadhan Abbey
Mashhad Iran
The Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was yesterday Thursday May 23, 2024 laid to rest in his ancestry home town Mashhad
At around 04:28 pm the casket containing the body of late President Raisi arrived at Imam Reza Shrine amidst thousands of people but only few were allowed to access the shrine.
Mashhad is the second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote North-East of the country about 900 kilometers’ (560 miles) from Tehran.
Before hundreds of thousands marched in his hometown Mashhad to bid farewell to Raisi ahead of his burial following processions in different Cities of Iran Including Tabriz, Birjand, Qom and Tehran.
Men and women, who were mainly clad in black chadors and catching white flowers, crowded the main boulevard of Mashhad, the Islamic republic’s second city in the North-East where Raisi was born
Raisi 63-year-old died on Sunday alongside seven others including Hossein Amirabdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, Malik Rahmati, governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province, Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Al-Hashem, representative of the Iranian supreme leader to East Azerbaijan and Sardar Seyed Mehdi Mousavi, head of Raisi’s guard team
The three pilots were Behraz Ghadime, Mahsen Daryanaash and Taher Mostatavi and also Maraghen.
The tragic incident happened in AzerbDizmar forest, located between the cities of Varzaqan and Jolfa in East Azerbaijan province, where the aircraft had a “rough landing” in heavy fog
Today six of people who were perished in the helicopter were buried yesterday including President Ebrahim Raisi who was buried in his ancestry Town Mashadi, Hossein Amirabdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister buried in Sharerey Tehran, Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Al-Hashem Tabriz and Malik Rahmati, the former Governor in Azarbaijani Province
Others were three pilots Behraz Ghadime in his village Daranjan in Zaryan Provice, Mahsen Daryanaash in Isphahan, and Taher Mostatavi in Behesht Zahrah
And today May 24, 2024, the burial will continues with Sardar Seyed Mehdi Mousavi, who was the head of Raisi’s security team and will be buried in Sharerey North Tehran and Maraghen in Azerbaijan Shargi
While leading the funeral service Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader d d not say any instead of asking Allah to forgive them
“Oh Allah, we didn’t see anything but well from him,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in the standard prayer for the dead in Arabic.
After the five day of mourning the authorities, including the acting President Mohammad Mokhber, will focus on organizing an election for a new president set for June 28.
Cause of the crash
The helicopter involved in the Crash on Sunday was a Bell 212, a two-blade aircraft capable of carrying 15 people. However, the two remaining choppers accompanying the president’s helicopter made a safe return.
Along with Iran, the Azerbaijan government is also conducting an investigation at the crash site to examine if weather checks were made before the decision to fly was taken. So far, there have been no serious allegations of sabotage and still weather is considered as the main villain.
Who was President Ebrahim Raisi?
Ebrahim Raisi, commonly known as Ebrahim Raisi, was an Iranian politician who served as the eighth president of Iran from 2021 until his death in 2024. A Principlist and a Muslim jurist, he became president after the 2021 election.
The 63-year-old political heavyweight was regarded as the natural successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran.
Raisi began studying at the renowned Qom religious seminary at the young age of 15 and proceeded to learn under several of the Muslim scholars of the time.
In his early 20s, he was appointed prosecutor in successive cities until he went to the capital, Tehran, to work as a deputy prosecutor.
In 1983, he married Jamileh Alamolhoda, the daughter of Mashhad’s Friday Prayer Imam Ahmad Alamolhoda. They went on to have two daughters.
For five months in 1988, he was part of a committee overseeing a series of executions of political prisoners, a past that made him unpopular among the Iranian opposition and led to the United States imposing sanctions on him.
In 1989, he was appointed prosecutor of Tehran after the death of Iran’s first Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Raisi continued to rise through the ranks under Khomeini’s replacement, Ayatollah Khamenei, becoming chairman of the Astan Quds Razavi, the biggest religious endowment in Mashhad, on March 7, 2016, which cemented his status in Iran’s establishment.
By then, the JCPOA was in shambles after the US – under then-President Donald Trump – unilaterally withdrew and reimposed sanctions on Iran, severely affecting its economy.
Connections
Raisi had strong credentials in the religious establishment, with solid relationships with the late Khomeini as well as with Khamenei, who appointed him to several senior positions.
However, Raisi led Iran during a time of public anger over a deteriorating standard of living, partly due to sanctions and what critics described as the prioritisation of defence over domestic issues.
In late 2022, public anger erupted over the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police, who had arrested the 22-year-old as she left a metro station in Tehran with members of her family for alleged non-compliance with the country’s mandatory hijab rules.
Protests roiled Iran for months, with women taking off or burning their hijabs and cutting their hair off in protest.
The rallies came to an end in mid-2023 after some 500people died when security forces moved in to break up the protests, according to foreign human rights organizations. Seven people were executed for their roles in the unrest.
A United Nations fact-finding mission concluded in March this year that Iran committed crime against humanity in the crackdown, including murder, torture and rape.
He also managed to maintain good relations with all branches of government, military and legislative as well as the powerful theocratic ruling class.
Deadlocks
Raisi did not shy away from confrontation internationally either.
Angered by the US’s stance towards the JCPOA and the inability of other signatories to save the pact, a defiant Raisi announced that Iran was stepping up its nuclear programme, but that it was not interested in a bomb.
More recently, he led Iran through a standoff with Israel as the two countries squared off over Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza, now approaching its eighth month.
Iran has been outspoken in its condemnation of Israel’s brutal attacks on Palestinian civilians, as have its regional allies in the so-called “axis of resistance” to Israel and its Western allies.
In early April, the Iranian consular building in Damascus was attacked in a strike blamed on Israel, killing seven people including a top commander and his deputy.
For almost two weeks, Raisi’s every utterance was the subject of intense scrutiny as the world awaited Tehran’s response. On April 15, Iran launched a well telegraphed attack that Israel’s chief military spokesman Daniel Hagari said involved more than 120 ballistic missiles, 170 drones and more than 30 cruise missiles, with most intercepted outside Israel’s borders. Minor damage was reported in some areas of Israel, and the attack led to a token response.
The regional rivalry between Iran and Israel could also be seen in Syria, where Israel has launched multiple attack over the years, ostensibly targeting Iranian military capabilities there.
Iran has maintained a close relationship with Syria for years, backing President Bashar al-Assad since he ordered a violent response to peaceful protests in 2011, which led to 13 years of civil war. With military and tactical support, Iran has expanded its influence in Syria while the allied Lebanese group Hezbollah has also bolstered al-Assad’s forces.
Between continuing established foreign policy and navigating new confrontations domestically and internationally, Raisi proved a controversial president.
However, his strong relationships on all levels of the Iranian establishment also made him a strong contender for a second term, and possibly for the highest post in the land, that of supreme leader.
By the time of his death, Raisi signed a lot of agreements with African Countries including Uganda, Nigeria, DRC Congo, and Tanzania, Kernya, South Africa, Ghana and others
He has been together with Russia, Chain, Pakistan, India and others
RIP RAISE and others who were perished in the helicopter crash
Leave a Reply