Iran holds mass funeral for ’80s war dead amid nuclear talks

By ISABEL DEBRE
Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Thousands of mourners have poured into the streets of Iranian cities for the mass funeral of 250 victims of the Iran-Iraq war — remains recently recovered in a testament to the brutal conflict’s scale and enduring legacy after 35 years. Thursday marked the largest such ceremony in recent years. While serving as a mass remembrance for a country routinely consumed in mourning over the grisly war that killed a million people on both sides, the event also demonstrated the power of Iranian hard-liners who organized it, as negotiations over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers flounder in Vienna and tensions ratchet up across the region.