Iran writer to publish president memoir

Iranian poet and writer Hamed Asgari is set to write a memoir about his trip to New York with the late Iranian president Ebrahim Raeisi.

Asgari, who traveled to New York with the late president in 2022, wrote in a social media post, "Now I have to find time, and with trembling and painful fingers, open the New York folder on my computer drive, reread the text, review it, and add the word 'martyr' before the names of the late president as well as the late Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian."

"It was unthinkable to me that I would be on a five-day journey with these martyrs," he added.

The Iranian president, foreign minister and their accompanying delegation lost their lives after the helicopter carrying them crashed in the northwestern province of East Azarbaijan on Sunday. Their bodies were found on Monday after an extensive night-long search operation.

AG/AG