Ayatollah Sistani Condoles with Iran over Martyrdom of President, Entourage

IQNA – Iraq’s top Shia cleric Ayatollah Seyed Ali al-Sistani offered condolences after the martyrdom of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his companions in a helicopter crash on Sunday.

The office of the grand Shia source of emulation issued a statement on Monday.

According to the statement, Ayatollah Sistani said the news of the deaths of the Iranian chief executive and a number of his companions caused sorrow and grief.

The senior cleric expressed condolences to the “noble Iranian nation and respected officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran”, especially the bereaved families and prayed divine mercy for the martyrs and patience and divine reward for the families.  

President Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Friday prayer leader of Tabriz and the governor of East Azarbaijan were among those martyred in the helicopter incident on Sunday.

They were returning from a ceremony to inaugurate a dam on the Aras River with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev when the helicopter carrying them crashed in the Dizmar forest, nestled between the cities of Varzaqan and Jolfa in Iran’s northwestern province of East Azerbaijan.

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