Tehran held on Saturday a memorial service for late President Ebrahim Raisi and other officials who died in a helicopter crash last Sunday.
Iraqi officials featured prominently at the event as shown in photos released by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s office.
Khamenei was seen seated among Iraqi religious clerics and politicians. Other foreign officials were not seated among them but elsewhere at the service.
Seated in the same row as Khamenei were head of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council Judge Faiq Zidan and major Iranian officials.
Iraq had said Zidan was traveling to Tehran to offer his condolences. President Abdul Latif Rashid had also headed to Iran with former Prime Ministers Adel Abdul Mehdi and Haidar al-Abadi and leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Bafel Talabani.
Talabani enjoys strong ties with Iraq’s pro-Iran Coordination Framework and Iran itself.
Other Iraqi officials at the service were head of the Popular Mobilization Forces Faleh al-Fayyad, head of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq Qais al-Khazali, leader of the Hikma movement Ammar al-Hakim, and Kurdish politician Adham Barzani, known for his controversial stances,
Barzani has stirred controversy for backing Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s traditional rival.
