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.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will today lead prayers for the fallen, which also includes Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, at the university.
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.
Raisi, who was widely expected to succeed Khamenei as supreme leader, was 63.
In the capital, huge banners have gone up hailing the late president as “the martyr of service”, while others bade “farewell to the servant of the disadvantaged”.
Tehran residents received phone messages urging them to “attend the funeral of the martyr of service”.
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