‘Raeisi heroically stood by Palestinians’: British-Sudanese journalist

A British-Sudanese journalist and commentator said that martyred Iranian President “Ebrahim Raeisi heroically stood by the Palestinians.”

Ahmed Kaballo, a former Press TV contributor and founder of the African Stream news network,  made the remarks on Tuesday night in Tehran while talking to Press TV.

Kaballo along with several other journalists and activists arrived in Tehran on Saturday to attend the 2nd Sobh International Media Festival which was held from May 19 to May 21.

On Sunday, the helicopter carrying President Raisi and his entourage crashed as it was on its way to Tabriz, the capital of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, from a location on the border with the Republic of Azerbaijan where the Iranian president had opened a major dam project.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and two senior provincial officials along with crew members and bodyguards also died as a result of the crash.

“Ebrahim Raeisi heroically stood by the Palestinians during their own tragic circumstances and genocide enacted by Israelis,” Kaballo said.

“Ebrahim Raeisi’s compassion for the civilians, for the children – you know it’s not framed like this very often but the genocide in Gaza is the war on children – and Ebrahim Raeisi has not just talked about geopolitical sense. He talked about the human cost. He talked about the people who lost their lives, the families who were torn apart, and did it with compassion and sympathy,” he stated.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Kaballo said, “We are in the midst of a multipolar world. And he (Raeisi) did all about to bring about that multipolar world.”

“He had relations with Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president. He met with Daniel Ortega, the Nicaraguan president,” the journalist noted.

Ebrahim Raeisi was born on December 14, 1960, in the city of Mashhad in northwestern Iran.

He rose through the ranks to become one of the most important political figures in the Islamic Republic of Iran, holding many key positions, including the chief of the judiciary, before becoming the 8th president of Iran.

From 2004 to 2014, Raeisi served as Iran’s deputy chief justice. In 2014, he was appointed as the country’s Attorney General, a position he held until 2016.

He then became the custodian of the holy shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia Imam, in his hometown Mashhad.

His most notable appointment came in March 2019 when the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, chose him to lead Iran's judiciary.

He succeeded Sadeqh Amoli Larijani, who was appointed the head of the Expediency Council.

A noted Islamic scholar, Raeisi served as a member of the Assembly of Experts from South Khorasan province and was first elected from there in the 2006 election.

In 2016, he became the deputy leader of the Assembly of Experts, a Constitutional body responsible for appointing the Leader of the Islamic Revolution. Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati heads the body.

In 2017 he ran as a candidate in the presidential election against then-President Hassan Rouhani.

He ended up second in that election after Rouhani, who secured 23.5 million votes against Raeisi's 15.7 million.

However, his second presidential bid in 2021 saw him emerge as the winner, assuming leadership of the country for the next four years.

In the 2021 election, Raeisi won a landslide victory, pocketing 17.9 million votes out of the 28.9 million cast.

The eighth president of Iran officially began his tenure on August 3, 2021.

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