Iran president demise newest: Ebrahim Raisi’s funeral procession underway as US says he had ‘blood on his hands’ | EUROtoday

The Iranian president, the nation’s international minister and several other different officers had been discovered useless on Monday, hours after their helicopter crashed in a foggy, mountainous area of the nation’s northwest, Iran state media reported.

The US State Department mentioned: “The United States expresses its official condolences for the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian, and other members of their delegation in a helicopter crash in northwest Iran.

“As Iran selects a new president, we reaffirm our support for the Iranian people and their struggle for human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

A video broadcast by state media confirmed hordes of mourners gathering for a procession by means of the town of Tabriz in northwest Iran, close to the location the place the politician’s helicopter crashed.

Raisi, 63, was certainly one of eight passengers, together with the international minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, on board the helicopter because it flew by means of a mountainous area south of neighbouring Azerbaijan in foggy circumstances.

Despite the massive crowds on Tuesday, most of whom seemed to be male, swathes of the Iranian inhabitants have been celebrating Raisi’s demise on social media. It can be unclear what worldwide presence a funeral this week will draw, as Raisi confronted US sanctions for his half in mass executions in 1988 and for abuses concentrating on protesters and dissidents whereas main the nation’s judiciary. Iran beneath Raisi additionally shipped bomb-carrying drones to Russia for use in its struggle on Ukraine.

“I don’t feel comfortable sending condolences while Iran is sending drones that are used against civilians in Ukraine,” wrote Lithuanian international minister Gabrielius Landsbergis on the social platform X.

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Iran’s Secretary of the Association of Exporters of Technical and Engineering Services has claimed the Iraqi authorities has did not settle over a billion {dollars} owed to Iranian contractors, Iran International reviews.

Bahman Salehi Javid additionally revealed that the households of a number of Iranian engineers who had been killed in 2015 throughout ISIS assaults haven’t acquired any of the $9 million compensation per sufferer, legally stipulated by Iraqi legal guidelines.

Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the late president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, as a dependable associate all the time good to his phrase and requested the chairman of parliament on Tuesday to convey his sympathy at memorial occasions.

Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash close to the Azerbaijan border over the weekend alongside together with his international minister and 7 others.

“He was truly a reliable partner, a man sure of himself, who acted in the national interest,” Russian information businesses quoted Putin as telling Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the State Duma decrease home of parliament.

“He was, of course, a man of his word and it was always good to work with him. What I mean is if we came to an agreement on something, you could be sure the agreement was carried out,” Putin mentioned.

The Kremlin chief requested Volodin, who will likely be attending memorial occasions in Iran, to go on “words of our sincere condolences in connection with this tragedy”.

Putin expressed his condolences to interim Iranian president Mohammad Mokhber and to the entire Iranian individuals on Monday.

Since the beginning of the struggle in Ukraine, Russia has strengthened political, commerce and army ties with Iran in a deepening relationship that the United States and Israel view with concern.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardliner and potential successor to the nation’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been killed in a helicopter crash.

The helicopter took off from the Khodaafarin Dam, within the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan, on Sunday afternoon.

But the helicopter later crashed in a distant and mountainous area within the Arasbaran Forest, close to the border with Azerbaijan within the Varzeqan area. The helicopter had been carrying each Raisi and Amirabdollahian, in addition to six different passengers and crew.

The tough distance between the place the helicopter is believed to have gone down and the Khodaafarin Dam is round 80 miles.

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed on Tuesday they shot down an American drone over the impoverished Arab county. The U.S. army didn’t instantly acknowledge the declare.

If confirmed, this could be the second MQ-9 Reaper drone downed by the Houthis over the previous week as they press their marketing campaign over the Israel-Hamas struggle within the Gaza Strip.

Last Friday, the Houthis claimed downing an American drone over the province of Marib, hours after footage circulated on-line of what seemed to be the wreckage of an MQ-9 Reaper. And early Saturday, a vessel additionally got here beneath assault within the Red Sea.

A group of search and rescue motorcyclists from the operation to seek out Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, have revealed that the wreckage of the helicopter was “completely exploded and everything was burned”, in accordance with Iran International.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s former international minister, controversially attributed the crash to US sanctions that prohibit Iran’s entry to important aviation elements.

The helicopter, a Nineteen Seventies-era US Bell chopper, had been in service for the reason that monarchy, later confiscated by the federal government for official use.

Observers level out that regardless of Iran’s sturdy ties with nations like Russia and China, the regime has did not modernise or adequately keep its aviation fleet, elevating questions in regards to the true state of its home army and governmental transport capabilities.