Jagdeep Dhankhar, the Vice President of India will travel to Tehran on Wednesday (May 22) to attend an official ceremony to pay condolences on the demise of Iranian President Dr. Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Dr. Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other Iranian officials in a tragic helicopter crash on May 19.
The Ministry of External Affairs in its official release notified about the Vice President's visit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Droupadi Murmu had expressed condolences to Iran and its people on the loss of their leaders. Meanwhile on Tuesday, External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar also visited the Iranian Embassy in New Delhi and conveyed condolences to Iran on behalf of the nation.
Iran has proclaimed five days of mourning for Raisi. Notably, India is also observing a day of mourning today to pay homage to the late Iranian President.
Days of funeral ceremonies begin in Iran
Earlier in the day, thousands of Iranian flooded the streets of Tabriz city to mourn Raisi's death as Iran begins days of funeral ceremonies. The State TV broadcasted live images of mourners, most of them dressed in black, beating their chests during a white flowers-laden-truck carrying the caskets wrapped in the national flag was driven slowly through the crowd. Later, his body body was flown from Tabriz, the closest major city to the remote crash site, to Tehran airport before heading to the holy Shi'ite Muslim city of Qom. From Qom, it will return to the capital to lie at Tehran's Grand Mosalla Mosque. The corpse will then be transferred to his hometown of Mashahd, in eastern Iran, for burial on Thursday.
Raisi’s death came at a time of deepening crisis between the clerical leadership of Khamenei and society at large over issues from tightening social and political controls to economic hardship.
This was evident from a low voter turnout of around 41% in March's parliamentary election. As the elections are slated for June 28, Iran faces the challenge to restore its damaged legitimacy.
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