Iran prepares to bury late president, foreign minister and others killed in helicopter crash

By JON GAMBRELL
Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran is preparing to inter its late president at the holiest site for Shiite Muslims in the Islamic Republic, a final sign of respect for a protege of Iran’s supreme leader killed in a helicopter crash earlier this week. President Ebrahim Raisi’s burial later Thursday at the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad caps days of processionals through much of Iran, seeking to bolster the country’s theocracy after the crash killing him, the country’s foreign minister and six others. However, the services have not drawn the same crowd as those who gathered for services for Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in 2020 in a potential sign of the public’s feelings about Raisi after harsh crackdowns on dissent.