Iran leader Khamenei’s funeral procession begins in Tehran as huge crowds expected

• The funeral procession for Iran’s late supreme leader Ali Khamenei began in Tehran with huge crowds expected, reflecting national resilience after weeks of war with the US and Israel.
• Khamenei’s son Mojtaba, named as the new supreme leader, has not appeared publicly since taking power, with unclear details about his condition after being wounded.
• Funeral events will continue in Qom, Najaf, Karbala, and Mashhad, emphasising calls for revenge and solidarity amid ongoing tensions and the recent ceasefire in the Middle East conflict.

TEHRAN – The funeral procession for Iran’s late supreme leader Ali Khamenei began in Tehran on July 6, state television reported, as authorities prepared for crowds that could rival those that turned out for his predecessor nearly four decades ago.

The ceremonies offer Iran an opportunity to project resilience after five weeks of war with the United States and Israel, while attention remains focused on Khamenei’s successor, his son Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since taking power.

After lying in state for two days at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla religious complex, the body of Khamenei – who was killed on the first day of the Middle East war on Feb 28 – began its journey through the capital accompanied by massive crowds of mourners, state broadcaster IRIB reported.

Mourners gathered in Imam Hussein Square in eastern Tehran and hanged an effigy of US President Donald Trump, according to state media.

Authorities are hoping to avoid a repeat of the chaos that marred the 1989 funeral of Khamenei’s predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which drew an estimated 10 million people, according to state news agency IRNA.

Crowd surges in Khomeini’s funeral killed more than 10 people and injured over 10,000.

Thousands had filled the Grand Mosalla on Sunday to pay their respects to Khamenei and his four family members, all killed on February 28 in Israeli airstrikes based on US intelligence.

Massive concrete walls separated the public from the coffin to prevent stampedes.

It is unclear what level of access and proximity the public will have during the procession, but authorities are mindful that in 1989 they were forced to use a helicopter to transport Khomeini for burial after mourners stormed his vehicle, causing his burial shroud to tear and his body to fall to the ground.

As well as laying Khamenei – who ruled the Islamic republic for more than three-and-a-half decades – to rest, the funerals are a chance for Iran’s authorities to burnish their resilience after five weeks at war with Israel and the United States.

Mojtaba absent

Iran’s speaker of parliament and chief negotiator with the US, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf – one of the most prominent faces of the post-Ali Khamenei era – hailed on X how the “proud and invincible nation of Islamic Iran unanimously” paid tribute to its “martyr”.

The July 6 procession will be followed by similar events in the clerical hub of Qom on July 7 and in Iraq’s holy cities of Najaf and Karbala on July 8, culminating in Khamenei’s burial in his home town of Mashhad in north-eastern Iran on July 9.

Three of Ali Khamenei’s sons made a rare public appearance at the funeral on July 5, further highlighting the absence of Mojtaba Khamenei, who was named supreme leader shortly after his father’s killing but has yet to appear in public.

Officials have said he was wounded in the air strikes, but the severity of his injuries remains unclear.

The new commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, Ahmad Vahidi, whose predecessor was killed on Feb 28, appeared at the funerals for a second time on July 5, this time in the open air, after he went unseen throughout the war.

Esmail Qaani, the shadowy head of the Guards’ Quds Force – responsible for its foreign operations – also made a rare appearance.

While Iranian authorities have been keen to present a united front, none of President Masoud Pezeshkian’s surviving predecessors, who had tensions in their relationship with Khamenei, have so far been seen at the ceremonies.

‘Demand revenge’

The government is also eager to tout the mass mobilisation in support of the authorities after mass protests in January that rights groups say were quelled by a crackdown that killed thousands of people.

The Middle East war is on hold following a ceasefire and an initial accord struck with the US. Both Washington and Tehran have warned they are ready to resume military action, and vengeance has been a major theme at the funerals.

“The killers (of Khamenei) must face punishment,” a 38-year-old man who gave his surname as Miremadi told AFP at the prayers on July 5.

“We back our revolution and our leader, and we demand revenge for the blood of our loved ones,” said a woman, 39, with the surname Bakand.

Khamenei long pursued a course of confrontation with the West, and Tehran for years has provided support to anti-US and anti-Israel armed groups around the Middle East, including Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, who both sent delegations to the ceremonies. AFP