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Iranian President Raisi's helicopter crash

Iranian president's remains to be moved to Qom, religious epicenter of country — TV

Ebrahim Raisi will be laid to rest in the Imam Reza shrine in his home town of Mashhad

DUBAI, May 21. /TASS/. The body of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who recently died in a helicopter crash, will soon be transported to the Shiite religious heartland, the city of Qom south of the capital Tehran, Press TV reported.

The coffin with the president’s body will be delivered to Qom from the city of Tabriz, where a farewell ceremony for the victims of the helicopter crash, including Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and six more people, is currently underway.

Qom is Iran’s religious center where Shiite clerics study in religious schools. The city has always had an important place in the country’s religious and political life. Shiite clerics played a key role in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, as well as in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1905-11.

Raisi will be laid to rest in the Imam Reza shrine in his home town of Mashhad. Long before his death, the deceased president asked to be buried in the shrine of Imam Reza, one of the main Shiite saints. Raisi died on Imam Reza’s birthday, which is widely celebrated by Shiite Muslims, and is now referred to as "Khadem al-Reza," that is, "Reza’s servant." The Iranian team at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games will also be called "Khadem al-Reza."

A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Governor of the East Azerbaijan Province Malek Rahmati, Imam of Friday Prayer in Tabriz Muhammad Ali Ale-Hashem and the chief of the presidential guard crashed in the province of East Azerbaijan on May 19. An election to choose a new president has been scheduled for June 28.

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