Pro-government artists at the Raisi memorial ceremony

Raisi flew to the far north-western province of East Azerbaijan on Sunday morning for the inauguration of the Qiz Qalasi and Khoda Afarin dams, a joint hydroelectric power project with neighbouring Azerbaijan on the Aras river. He was joined at the ceremony by Azerbaijan’s President, Ilham Aliyev, who said he had bid a “friendly farewell”, external before the helicopter departed the dam area and flew towards the city of Tabriz, about 130km (80 miles) to the south. Raisi had been scheduled to inaugurate a project at the Tabriz oil refinery.