Large Crowds Gather In Tehran For Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Funeral, Burial Planned In Mashhad

Large crowds gathered outside Tehran's main mosque on the first day of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's funeral commemorations, with his body lying in state at the Grand Mosalla ahead of burial in his hometown of Mashhad next Thursday.

“Huge crowds continued to gather at Tehran's Grand Mosalla religious complex to view the casket of Iran's former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei despite soaring summer temperatures and road closures across the capital”

ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

BBC reported that authorities expect 15-20 million people to attend ceremonies across Iran and Iraq over the coming days, more than four months after Khamenei was killed in US and Israeli strikes.

ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

NPR said the funeral began at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla in Tehran, where Iranian state media showed huge crowds visiting the casket of Ali Khamenei, killed on Feb. 28 at the start of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran.

NPR also described caskets of four of his killed family members on display, while men and women in the crowd wore black and wept openly and women slapped their heads with their hands in mourning.

At the same time, BBC said much of central Tehran would be locked down over the weekend as the funeral ceremony got under way, and it outlined a route that included Qom, then Najaf in Iraq, before burial in Mashhad.

Crowds at the Grand Mosalla chanted “Death to America” and carried big red signs that read “#KillTrump,” while NPR reported that some waved flags including red ones symbolizing revenge and yellow ones representing the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah.

Reuters quoted in BBC coverage captured the mood of retaliation, with Arash Rahimi telling Reuters: "Everyone here has come to avenge the blood of their supreme leader."

Al-Jazeera Net

NPR said world leaders and religious figures attended as Khamenei lay in state, including Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and a delegation from Hamas.

NPR also reported that there has been no sign of Iran's current leader, Khamenei's son, Mojataba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since he took over in March.

In a separate account, the Guardian described the funeral as a six-day, five-city event with organisers claiming up to 30 million people may attend at some point, and it said by 8am the open-air mosque contained as many as 10,000 people.

NPR said mourners will be able to visit Khamenei's body in Tehran until the end of the weekend, and on Monday a funeral procession will take the body to the city of Qom before crossing into Iraq for Shia religious sites in Najaf and Karbala.

ABC News & Headlines reported that the caskets would remain at the mosque on Sunday before being transported on an 11-kilometre procession through the capital to Azadi, or Freedom Square on Monday, and it said the six-day ceremony will culminate with burial in Mashhad on Thursday.

The Guardian said at the request of Iraqi politicians, Khamenei’s body will also be carried through the Iraqi Shia cities of Karbala and Najaf, and it described the banner at the bodies’ placement reading: “Say, I only advise you with one thing: that you stand up for Allah singly or in pairs.”

Lismore City News quoted Qom Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Mohammad Saidi declaring to state media that the “large public turnout” would be “another referendum for the Islamic Republic,” while it also said Tehran is preparing a massive security operation for the funeral.

In the same Lismore City News account, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a statement that “This martyrdom is not the end of the journey, but the beginning of a new chapter of national unity, resilience, and progress,” as the article described threats of a powerful response if either the United States or Israel resumes attacks.