Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh attended the mass funeral Wednesday in Tehran for Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed with Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and other officials in a helicopter crash on Sunday.
Photos were released of Haniyeh meeting with Iran’s “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Head of Hamas’ Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh condoles with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, following the death of Iranian late President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and other officials in a helicopter crash, in Tehran, Iran on May 22, 2024. (Photo by Iranian Leader Press Office/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Officials from other Iranian-backed groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, were also in attendance at the event.
The Times of Israel reported:
Iranian state media runs footage of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh attending the funeral of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday.
Haniyeh, the supreme leader of the Palestinian group, is based in Qatar and frequently travels across the region.
…
Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem is also in Tehran for the funeral.
Haniyeh has a net worth of billions of dollars after siphoning aid money and tax revenues while sending others to die.
The U.S. State Department had sent condolences in advance of the funeral and gathering of these leaders, which Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended, upon being questioned by the Senate, as the “normal course of business.”
He added that Israel did not share Blinken’s condolences:
“There are no tears in Israel being shed for the death of this tyrant. … Any of these sort of fake expressions of regret about what has happened to these Iranian leaders — it turns our stomach, to be blunt.”
