Iranians will gather to mourn at the funerary procession of President Ebrahim Raisi in the northwestern city of Tabriz, the capital of East Azerbaijan province where he died in a helicopter crash.
The helicopter lost communication while it was on its way back to Tabriz after Mr Raisi attended a joint inauguration of a dam with his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, on their common border.
A massive search and rescue operation started Sunday afternoon when two other helicopters in Mr Raisi’s convoy lost contact with his aircraft amid harsh weather conditions in the mountainous region.
State TV early yesterday broke the news of his death.
Killed alongside the Iranian president was Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, members of the provincial authorities of East Azerbaijan and his security team.
Iran’s military chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri ordered an investigation into the cause of the crash.
Following the confirmation of Mr Raisi’s death, international condolences poured in while people in cities across the Islamic republic gathered to mourn the late president and his companions.
Thousands of mourners holding portraits of Mr Raisi gathered at central Valiasr Square in the capital Tehran.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has ultimate authority in Iran, declared five days of national mourning and assigned Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, 68, to assume interim duties ahead of elections.
State media later announced the presidential election would be held on 28 June.
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri, who served as deputy to Amir-Abdollahian, was tapped to serve as the acting foreign minister.
After leaving Tabriz, Mr Raisi’s body will arrive in Iran’s Shia clerical centre of Qom before being moved to Tehran.
Mr Khamenei is due to hold prayers at a farewell ceremony in Tehran, ahead of major processions due to begin tomorrow morning.
Mr Raisi’s remains will then be taken to Southern Khorasan province on Thursday morning and later to his hometown of Mashhad, where he will be buried on Thursday evening after funerary rites.
The ultraconservative had been in office since 2021, a time during which Iran was rocked by mass protests, an economic crisis deepened by US sanctions, and armed exchanges with arch-enemy Israel.
Mr Raisi succeeded the moderate Hassan Rouhani, at a time when the economy was battered by US sanctions over Iran’s contested nuclear programme.
Condolences flooded in from Palestinian militant group Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and Syria, all members of the so-called “axis of resistance” against Israel and its allies, at a time of high Middle East tensions over the Gaza war.
The war in the Palestinian territory sent tensions soaring and a series of escalations led to Tehran launching hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel in April.
It came in response to an earlier air strike widely blamed on Israel that levelled Tehran’s Damascus consulate and killed two Revolutionary Guards generals.
In a speech hours before his death, Mr Raisi emphasised Iran’s support for the Palestinians, a centrepiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Palestinian flags were raised along with the Iranian flags in ceremonies for Mr Raisi across the Islamic republic.
