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Iran warned the US and Israel that any attacks during the public funeral would be met with a ‘harsh retaliation’
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Iran has begun several days of public mourning for former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in joint US-Israeli strikes in February.
Officials told AFP that the funeral in Tehran could draw as many as 20 million mourners and expect the public turnout to be a “referendum” for the Islamic Republic.
The regime’s ruling clerics are preparing days of mass funeral rites for Khamenei. Funeral events will begin over the weekend in Tehran, followed by mass processions next week in Qom and Masshad and ceremonies in Iraq.
“The large public turnout at the funeral procession of the martyred leader and the other martyrs will, in effect, be another referendum for the Islamic Republic,” Qom Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Mohammad Saidi declared to state media.
Iran has warned Donald Trump and Israel not to launch strikes during the state funeral.
Ali Abdollahi, commander of Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said the “enemies of Iran” should avoid a “miscalculation” or else face harsh retaliation.
A powerful general who leads Iran‘s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard emerged from hiding as Tehran prepared Friday for the dayslong funeral for the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Photos published online by Iranian state media showed Gen. Ahmad Vahidi attending a meeting about the funeral of Khamenei, 86, then sitting alongside his casket as Iran’s theocracy held a smaller service for him Thursday night near the supreme leader’s former home in downtown Tehran.
Vahidi has become a major player in formulating Iran’s tough stance in negotiating a possible permanent end to the war with the United States, experts say.
He is believed to be part of a small clique in direct contact with Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who remains in hiding after being reportedly wounded in the Feb. 28 Israeli strikes that killed his father, the elder Khamenei.
Iran is keen to present a unified front for the late supreme leader’s funeral, even as analysts warn support for the clerical leadership is waning, writes James C. Reynolds:
Iran claims as many as 20 million people are expected to attend processions across the country in the coming days for the delayed mass funeral rites of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, more than four months after he was killed in a US-Israeli airstrike.
The regime will frame such a show of public devotion as proof of their resilience after surviving what they saw as an existential war with the United States and Israel.
They hope to mobilise the public to flood the cities, offering transport, food and accommodation to lift the numbers, and are welcoming foreign dignitaries to show Iran still has powerful friends around.
Read more here:
Ayotallah Khamenei’s body will be transported to cities in both Iran and neighboring Iraq.
Authorities have shut down streets, airspace and daily life for the mourning, which will end Thursday as he’s buried at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Khamenei’s place of birth.
Authorities offered no immediate attendance count for the event Saturday, which saw the crowds cycle in and out of the Grand Mosalla and the surrounding streets.
Other cities across Iran also held mourning ceremonies.
On Sunday, a prayer for the dead is planned at the Grand Mosalla.
On Monday, his body and those of his family will be taken through the streets of Tehran, which likely will draw large crowds.
“I am here to say goodbye to my beloved leader Ali Khamenei,” said a weeping Hananeh Mousavi, 27, who attended the funeral alongside her mother.
“I never expected to see such a day. I wish I had died before this tragedy.”
As the ceremony went on, Iran’s chief negotiator Kazem Gharibabadi criticized a joint statement overnight from Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, which suggested their militaries stood ready to patrol the Strait of Hormuz.
Control of the strait has been a major point of leverage for Iran, which has suggested it wants to charge vessels passing through it, upending decades of the world considering it an international waterway.
“The security of Hormuz lies with the coastal states — the crisis-makers will be held accountable for the consequences of their adventurism,” Gharibabadi wrote on X. “This is a serious warning.”
Iran chose July 4, the 250th anniversary of the creation of the US, to begin the funeral.
While authorities did not acknowledge the timing, crowds at the ceremony in Tehran chanted: “Death to America!”
The refrain has been common in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and U.S. Embassy takeover and hostage crisis.
They also cried: “Death to Israel!”
The American president was not forgotten in Tehran.
In the crowd in Grand Mosalla, several mourners held a large flag that read: “#KillTrump.”
Here are some of the latest photos from the funeral in Tehran today:
Mourners thronged a vast prayer complex in Tehran on Saturday as the week-long funeral ceremonies of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei began with the national anthem, religious eulogies and readings from the Quran.
Television footage showed his coffin draped with the Iranian flag and topped with his black turban.
It was placed, along with four other coffins of his slain family members, on a large black platform that resembled the Kaaba, representing Islam’s holiest site in Mecca.
The vast courtyard of the complex, the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla, was filled with mourners, many waving Iranian flags and carrying photographs of the slain leader.
A casket containing the body of slain Iranian leader Ali Khamenei was placed alongside the coffins of his relatives killed in US-Israeli airstrikes in February, including a small coffin of his 14-month-old granddaughter.
Zahra Mohammadi Golpayegani’s small coffin was draped in the Iranian national flag, with her framed photo next to it.
Six days of public funeral ceremonies have been planned, with Khamenei’s remains expected to be carried across cities in Iran and neighbouring Iraq.
Leaders from Pakistan, Turkey, and Russia arrived at Tehran to pay their respects to the slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Some in attendance were Russian security council deputy chairman Dmitry Medvedev, Turkish vice president Cevdet Yilmaz, Iraqi president Nizar Amidi, Iraqi parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi, Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistani senate chairman Yousaf Raza Gillani and army chief Asim Munir
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