Iran holds mass funeral prayer for slain supreme leader

TEHRAN

A mass funeral prayer was held in Iran's capital Tehran on July 5 for the country's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at Imam Khomeini Mosalla Mosque.

The funeral ceremony for Khamenei and his family members drew hundreds of thousands of mourners, many of whom arrived at the venue in the early hours of the morning carrying Iranian flags.

Iran on June 3 kicked off a week of mourning for late supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes, with foreign dignitaries attending the official ceremony.

The body of Khamenei arrived at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla on July 3 ahead of his funeral.

Photos showed mourners carrying Khamenei’s coffin, emblazoned with Iran’s tricolor flag, into the Grand Mosalla, one of the Islamic Republic’s most important ceremonial venues.

Others show crowds at a pre-funeral ceremony clad in black, as the coffin was set down against a backdrop of red flowers and white butterflies hanging in the air.

Ahmad Vahidi, head of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the military, made his first appearance since the start of the war in February, paying his respects at the coffin.

The ceremonies started an official ceremony on July 3, as Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Iraqi President Nizar Amedi, Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government President Nechirvan Barzani, Armenian Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon and Georgian President Mikheil Kavelashvili attended the ceremony.

Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz represented Ankara and was received by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Public ceremonies are expected to take place at multiple locations in Iran and Iraq from July 4 to July 9. The ceremonies are expected to draw between 15 and 20 million mourners, according to officials, which would make it the biggest state funeral in the country’s history.

Workers were readying the Grand Mosalla on July 2, while security teams stopped passing cars and curious bystanders looked on.

Khamenei, a spiritual figure for many Shias, was killed at the age of 86 in strikes on his compound in the center of the Iranian capital.

Authorities have ordered public and private offices in Tehran to close from July 4 through 6, while traffic restrictions will make much of the city center inaccessible to private vehicles.

Following the ceremonies in Tehran, Khamenei’s body will be taken to the Iraqi holy cities of Najaf and Karbala before his burial on July 9 at the shrine of Imam Reza in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad, his birthplace.