In the small hours of Friday, the police roadblocks, stalls, posters, and army vans were starting to appear across Tehran as millions of Iranians prepared to attend the long-delayed six-day funeral ceremony for Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader for 36 turbulent years.
Khamenei was killed in the opening salvo of the US-Israeli attack on the country in February. The funeral is intended to be an epic display of personal mourning, national power, resilience, and social cohesion. Small groups of mourners carrying flags were gathering along the roads festooned with the red fist, the symbol of the funeral, alongside the slogan “We must rise.”
Iran’s first vice-president, Mohammad Reza Aref, who is the lead funeral organiser, described the ceremony, which begins on Saturday in Tehran and will end with Khamenei’s burial on Thursday in Mashhad, as “the most important event of this century” and the most attended event since the 1979 revolution.
A Funeral of Unprecedented Scale
The scale of the funeral has been conceived to relay political and religious messages of resistance to the rest of the world. At the request of Iraqi politicians, Khamenei’s body will also be carried through the Iraqi Shia cities of Karbala and Najaf.
The public funeral will begin on Saturday at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla mosque, where Khamenei’s body will lie in state alongside the bodies of his relatives. All week, workers have been redecorating the vast building, and there has been a heavy police presence around the area. The funeral had been planned for early March, but the war with the US and Israel precluded such a large gathering.
A separate ceremony is scheduled on Friday for foreign leaders. Representatives from about 30 countries are expected to attend, but no leaders from Europe or the US have been invited.
The Succession Question
Despite the many posters of Khamenei’s son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, walking with his father in a garden, projecting continuity, Mojtaba is not expected to make an appearance at his father’s funeral. He was severely injured in the same US-Israeli strike that killed his father, his daughter, her husband, Mojtaba’s wife, and his 14-month-old daughter.
The extent of Mojtaba’s injuries is unknown, and he has so far issued only written statements, including one that distanced himself from the ceasefire negotiations but sanctioned their continuance. Israel’s defence minister has threatened to kill him, remarks that have prompted hardliners to call for a re-examination of Iran’s fatwa against possession of nuclear weapons.
The Procession and Burial
A six-mile procession through central Tehran is planned for Monday from Imam Hossein Square to Azadi Square, the site of the 1979 revolution. The mayor of Tehran has described Monday’s procession as “the largest gathering in the city’s history” and forecast about 20 million people will attend.
On Tuesday, Khamenei’s body will be taken to the holy city of Qom, before travelling to the Iraqi Shia strongholds of Karbala and Najaf on Wednesday. The burial on Thursday will be at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, the supreme leader’s birthplace.
Security and Symbolism
With the funeral taking place during a 60-day ceasefire with the US, organisers intend the event to show Iranians united behind their much-changed leadership as they seek to extract concessions from US negotiators. However, security threats remain intense. The burials of Khomeini in 1989 and Qassem Suleimani in 2020 were marked by chaos.
Officials have declared government and private offices in Tehran closed from Saturday to Monday, while traffic restrictions will place pressure on the city’s metro system. Tehran’s airspace will also close on Monday, with jets patrolling for any sign of an Israeli air attack.
The Bottom Line
Millions are expected to attend the six-day funeral of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a US-Israeli strike in February. The funeral, which begins in Tehran and ends with burial in Mashhad, is intended to display national power and resistance. Khamenei’s son and successor, Mojtaba, was also injured in the attack and is not expected to attend. The funeral comes during a ceasefire with the US.
