Iranians mourn late president

Iranians gathered Tuesday in the northwestern city of Tabriz to mourn the late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died Sunday in a helicopter crash in the region.

Crowds packed into streets held signs and banners with photos of Raisi along with others who died in the crash, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian.

The funeral ceremony is one of several taking place this week as Iran marks five days of mourning.

Ceremonies were also set for Qom and Tehran before Raisi’s final burial Thursday in his hometown of Mashhad.

Iranian officials have not publicly pinpointed a cause for the crash. The helicopter went down Sunday in a mountainous area during foggy weather as the Iranian delegation was returning from attending a dam project inauguration at the Iran-Azerbaijan border.

Former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif sought to blame the United States and its sanctions against Iran. Zarif told the Associated Press that the U.S. “embargoed the sale of aircraft and aviation parts to Iran and does not allow the people of Iran to enjoy good aviation facilities.”

The United States rejected that argument, with the State Department saying Tuesday that Iran “has used its aircraft to transport equipment to support terrorism.”

“We will continue to fully enforce our sanctions regime, including our sanctions regimes on aircraft for use by the Iranian government,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters. “Ultimately, it’s the Iranian government that is responsible for the decision to fly a 45-year-old helicopter in what was described as poor weather conditions, not any other actor.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei placed Vice President Mohammad Mokhber in charge of the executive branch following Raisi’s death. An election for a new president is due to be held within 50 days.

Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani was named as acting foreign minister.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters