Raisi funeral updates: Procession for Iran president after helicopter crash

 Massive crowds of Iranians thronged the streets of the capital, Tehran, for the funeral procession of President Ebrahim Raisi and his entourage, who died in a helicopter crash.

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Raisi and several other officials, including Iran’s foreign minister and a provincial governor, were on board when the helicopter went down in northern Iran’s East Azerbaijan province.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei declared five days of national mourning.

On Tuesday, mourners gathered in Tabriz, the capital of East Azerbaijan, for a farewell procession for Raisi.

An election will be held on June 28 to pick Raisi’s successor.

Foreign dignitaries pay their respects at official ceremony

The commemoration ceremony for Iran’s Raisi and other officials who died in Sunday’s crash has started at the Iran International Conference Center in northern Tehran, reports Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency.

Visiting delegations, including from Jordan and Oman, have entered the procession, paying tribute to Raisi and the other officials, according to videos posted by the news agency.

Kuwait’s FM heads to Tehran

More foreign dignitaries are flying into Tehran ahead of the commemoration ceremony.

One of the latest officials to head there is Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Abdullah Ali al-Yahya, who will attend the funeral on behalf of Kuwait’s emir.

Iranian expats shed fewer tears for Raisi

While tens of thousands of Iranians have gathered in Tehran to mourn their late president, reactions among Iranian expatriates, many critical of him and the government, vary.

Many Iranian diaspora members, including those who fled after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, view Raisi as an ultraconservative figure responsible for enforcing repressive laws and a crackdown on protests and dissidents.

They also point to Raisi’s alleged role in mass executions of political prisoners at the end of Iran’s long war with Iraq in the 1980s, for which he received US sanctions.

Seeing Raisi’s death as a blow to the government they revile, some groups of Iranian dissidents have even publicly celebrated in European cities, according to Nazenin Ansari, editor of the Kayhan London website.

“Each member of this regime that goes is a victory for us,” said Guilda Torabi, spokesperson for the Homa association, an Iranian support group in France.

Pakistan PM, Belarus FM arrive in Tehran

Iran’s Mehr news agency is reporting that Pakistan’s PM Sharif has arrived in Tehran.

Among other foreign dignities, Belarus’s Foreign Minister Sergei Aleinik also arrived in Iran’s capital this afternoon.