Iran Begins Week Of Funeral Processions For Slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei In Tehran

Iran began a week of public mourning and funeral processions for slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with his body lying in state at Tehran's Grand Mosalla ahead of burial in his hometown of Mashhad next Thursday.

“The body of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lies in state in a vast hall in capital Tehran as top officials and foreign dignitaries pay their respects, marking the beginning of a week of funeral ceremonies”

Al Jazeera

The BBC reported that Iranian authorities said 12 to 20 million people were expected to attend the ceremonies, which are part of what they are calling the "funeral of the century," and that six days of ceremonies will start at 06:00 (03:30 BST) on Saturday at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Mosalla.

Al Jazeera

The Washington Post said Khamenei’s body was moved to Tehran on Thursday for a private ceremony at the small compound that served as his office and residence, and on Friday his coffin was moved to Grand Mosalla where it now sits beside the coffins of other family members killed in the same strike.

The Washington Post also described security tightening in the capital, with additional checkpoints and some streets in downtown Tehran going into lockdown, while many mourners expected to descend on Saturday would need to walk for miles.

In parallel, the BBC said authorities ordered public and private offices in Tehran to close from Saturday through Monday, while traffic restrictions would shut down most of the city centre to private vehicles and the airspace over Tehran was partially closed on Friday and fully closed on Monday.

A central question for the funeral is whether Khamenei’s successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, will appear publicly, and NBC News said he is not expected to attend his father’s funeral, citing an Iranian official and a Middle Eastern diplomat.

NBC News reported that Khamenei, 56, was named as successor to his father in March but has not been seen in public or even issued an audio statement since the war began, and it said he suffered severe injuries in the strike that killed his father at the start of the war.

AP News

The Washington Post said the funeral offers the surviving regime an opportunity to project power after withstanding months of war with Israel and the United States, while also warning it would be a high-profile test of the government’s postwar competence.

NBC News also said the funeral began on Friday with a visit to his casket by the heads of the three branches of the Iranian government, including Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who is also the lead negotiator in talks with the U.S., in footage shown by state TV.

The Washington Post added that officials from key Iranian allies Russia and China arrived Friday, along with leaders from Pakistan, Iraq, Qatar, Oman and Tajikistan, and that the armed groups Khamenei helped build were also in attendance, including representatives from Kataib Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

As Iran prepares for the funeral processions, the sources describe ongoing diplomatic movement and continued warnings about attacks, with CBS News saying Qatari and Pakistani mediators said Thursday that the next meetings between Iranian and U.S. negotiators would be scheduled "at the earliest possible time" after funeral commemorations.

“Iran begins public mourning for Ayatollah killed in February Iran has begun several days of public mourning and funeral processions for its former Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, more than four months after he was killed in strikes launched by the US and Israel”

BBC

NBC News reported that Iran warned the United States and Israel on Thursday against launching any attack ahead of the event, and it quoted Ali Abdollahi, commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, warning the two countries “to avoid any miscalculations and to think about the harsh and regret-inducing reactions.”

The BBC said the ceremonies come as Iran and the United States observe a fragile ceasefire after signing a preliminary deal to halt their conflict in June, and it laid out the schedule for moving events to Qom, then Najaf in Iraq, then Karbala before burial in Mashhad.

The Washington Post said the war gave Tehran leverage through control over the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passageway for global commerce including energy supplies, and it described the funeral as a test of the government’s postwar competence.

In the background of the funeral’s political signaling, the BBC reported that the Tehran-based Mohammad Rasulullah Corps is leading an official funeral ceremony in Tehran on Saturday, and that its commander Hassan Hassanzadeh said Khamenei's coffin would be displayed on an elevated platform with crowd flows designed to allow visitors to enter and leave within 15 to 20 minutes.