Iran begins days of nationwide funeral rites for President Ebrahim Raisi after helicopter crash

• Thousands of mourners descended on Tabriz for a funeral ceremony honoring Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who perished in a helicopter crash over the weekend.
• Services for Raisi will be held between Tuesday and Thursday in Tabriz, Qom, Birjand and Iranian capital Tehran.
• His final burial will take place in his birthplace, the holy city of Mashhad in the northeast of the country, according to Iranian media.

Thousands of mourners descended on Tabriz on Tuesday for a funeral ceremony honoring Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who perished in a helicopter crash over the weekend, leaving an indelible void in the country's leadership succession plans.

Videos and photographs shared on social media and by Iran's state-owned Islamic Republic News Agency and the semiofficial Tasnim showed crowds swarming under a slate sky to observe the first funerary ceremony held for Raisi, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and others killed in the incident.

CNBC did not independently verify the footage. Some mourners are shown brandishing photographs of Raisi, while others trooped behind lines awaiting the procession.  

Services for Raisi will be held between Tuesday and Thursday in Tabriz, Qom, Birjand and Iranian capital Tehran. His final burial will take place in his birthplace, the holy city of Mashhad in the northeast of the country, according to IRNA, after Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced five days of mourning.

 "Our honorable Raisi worked tirelessly," Khamenei said on the X social media platform on Monday.

A public holiday was declared on Wednesday, when Iran will undertake a ceremony inviting "high-ranking foreign dignitaries," according to IRNA — although it is yet unclear which world leaders