Tehran, July 6, (dpa/GNA) – Several million people took part in a funeral procession for Iran’s late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran on Monday, the state news agency IRNA reported, without giving an exact number.
Khamenei’s coffin was carried from eastern Tehran along the main thoroughfare to Azadi Tower, in the west in temperatures well over 30 degrees Celsius, accompanied by huge crowds. Many of those participating in the procession chanted “Revenge, revenge,” as well as “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”
Some supporters of the cleric held up placards, depicting US President Donald Trump as a target. Khamenei was Iran’s highest political and religious authority, with the final say on all strategic matters in the country.
He was killed by an Israeli airstrike, targeting his official residence in Tehran, on the first day of the US-Israeli war with Iran at the end of February.
His death was followed by more than five weeks of fighting between Iran, Israel and the United States, drawing in Iranian-backed groups including the Lebanese Hezbollah, before US and Iranian representatives agreed to a ceasefire in early April.
Supporters from across the region, including Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, flocked to Iran to take part in the procession, which was part of a multi-day public mourning event that began on Saturday. Mourning ceremonies are planned for Wednesday in the Iraqi cities of Karbala and Najaf.
Khamenei is then to be buried in his hometown of Mashhad in north-eastern Iran on Thursday. Iran closed the airspace over Tehran on Monday for security reasons. Temporary and localized flight restrictions will also be in place on Tuesday and until Khamenei’s funeral on Thursday.
For Iran’s leadership and Khamenei’s supporters, the state funeral is both a farewell to the country’s longtime supreme leader, and a demonstration of political unity following the war. The government has repeatedly said Iran withstood the conflict, despite facing militarily superior opponents.
Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, was appointed supreme leader in early March, but has not appeared in public since, fuelling speculation about his health.
He is reported to have suffered serious injuries, and it remains unclear whether he will attend the funeral in Mashhad.
GNA