Pashinian was among several foreign dignitaries present at the funeral ceremony held in Tehran. No Western leaders were in attendance.
Khamenei presided over the start of the ceremony, delivering a traditional "death prayer" for the deceased officials before crowds reached out to touch their coffins.
Pashinian recalled his “warm and friendly” rapport with Raisi and described his death as a “tragedy” during separate meetings with Khamenei and Iran's acting president, First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber.
According to an Armenian government statement, Pashinian and Khamenei expressed confidence that Armenia and Iran will keep deepening bilateral ties. Iranian news agencies likewise quoted Khamenei as telling the Armenian premier that Iran will continue “expanding relations with Armenia” under Mokhber’s “guidance.”
“Our late president was very sensitive to the border issues related to Armenia, and these sensitivities and cares should still be taken into account,” Khamenei said, clearly alluding to Tehran’s regular warnings against Azerbaijan’s possible attempts to strip the Islamic Republic of its common border or transport links with Armenia.
Iranian leaders have also signaled their unease over the Pashinian government’s efforts to reorient Armenia towards the West amid a sharp deterioration of the South Caucasus nation’s relations with Russia, its traditional ally. Raisi insisted on “the non-interference of outsiders in regional affairs” when he received Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikian in March.
Khamenei appeared to echo those warnings when he told Pashinian, according to Iran’s Mehr news agency, that Tehran and Yerevan “must be able to secure our interests on our own.”
For his part, Mokhber assured Pashinian that Tehran remains committed to “all the plans for the development of Armenia-Iran relations mapped out by the Armenian prime minister with Ebrahim Raisi.”
Meanwhile, Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian said that Raisi was due to visit Armenia soon. “That was very important for us,” Simonian told journalists after visiting the Iranian Embassy in Yerevan to sign a book of condolences opened there.
The Russian state news agency TASS reported earlier that Raisi’s visit to Armenia had been scheduled for Sunday. Citing an unnamed source, it said the Iranian president postponed it “at the last moment.” The Armenian government did not confirm or deny the report.
Raisi travelled on Sunday to the Azerbaijani-Iranian border where he inaugurated with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev a dam on the Arax river separating the two countries. He was returning from that ceremony when a helicopter carrying him, Amir-Abdollahian and other officials crashed in a mountainous forest in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province.
Aliyev did not attend Wednesday’s funeral ceremony in Tehran, sending his prime minister and foreign minister instead.