Hundreds of thousands of mourners join public funeral ceremonies for Ali Khamenei
Web Desk
TEHRAN :A mass funeral prayer was held in Iran’s capital, Tehran, on Sunday 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.
The prayer at the major prayer complex was led by Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, senior military and political officials, and religious figures were among those attending the ceremony.
Khamenei was killed in US-Israeli strikes on Iran that began on Feb. 28 and were followed by Iranian retaliation. The funeral ceremonies officially began Friday, with foreign leaders and official delegations from across the region and beyond paying tribute to the late Iranian supreme leader. According to the official schedule, public farewell ceremonies will be followed by the main funeral procession in Tehran on Monday. The funeral rites will then move to Qom on July 7. On July 8, ceremonies are scheduled in Iraq, including in Baghdad, Najaf and Karbala, where the body will be received by religious and political figures before being transferred to major Shia shrines.
The final funeral and burial ceremony is scheduled for July 9 at the Imam Ali Reza Shrine in the northeastern city of Mashhad, one of Shia Islam’s holiest sites. Three sons of Iran’s slain leader Khamenei appear at funeral, not his successor Three sons of slain Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei prayed beside his coffin and those of four other family members on Sunday, but Mojtaba, the son who has succeeded him as Iran’s supreme leader, did not make an appearance. State TV showed Mostafa, Meysam and Masoud Khamenei praying behind the coffins laid out in the vast courtyard of Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla, a sprawling religious complex.
In a show of public devotion to the theocratic state and revolutionary zeal, the Islamic Republic is staging a week of mass funeral processions for Khamenei, including taking his remains to Shi’ite religious sites in neighbouring Iraq. After a day lying in state indoors for senior Iranian leaders and foreign officials to visit, Khamenei’s coffin was displayed outdoors on Saturday under glass, along with those of his daughter, son-inlaw, daughter-in-law and 14-month-old granddaughter. Mass grief in Iran at Khamenei funeral after US, Israel war killing.
