Three sons of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led funeral prayers for him and four other family members in Tehran on Sunday, but his son and designated successor, Mojtaba, was not present. A large crowd gathered for the prayers at Tehran’s Grand Mosque, and the surrounding streets were packed with people.
State television showed footage of Mostafa, Meysam and Massoud Khamenei performing funeral prayers in front of the coffins placed in the vast courtyard of the Grand Imam Khomeini Mosque in Tehran, a sprawling religious complex.
The Islamic Republic is organizing a week of mass mourning ceremonies for Khamenei, including transporting the body to two cities in neighboring Iraq, to demonstrate what Iranian media have described as the nation's loyalty and "renewal of the covenant with the ideals of the imams of the revolution and Islam."
After a number of senior Iranian leaders and foreign officials flocked to pay their respects to Khamenei's coffin, which lay in state in a large hall in Tehran on Friday, the coffin was placed outdoors on Saturday under a glass cover, alongside the coffins of his daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter, who was only 14 months old.
Mojtaba Khamenei has not yet appeared in public, nor has a photograph of him been released. He is said to have been injured in the attack that killed his father and other family members on February 28, when Israel and the United States bombed Iranian targets at the start of the war. Those close to him say that Mojtaba Khamenei's face was disfigured and that he suffered a severe injury to one or both legs.
Under the ceasefire agreement with Washington, the war that broke out four months ago has ended, and Iranian authorities say the agreement will ultimately bring significant economic gains to the country in what they describe as a victory over a superpower.
US President Donald Trump told the Axios news website that talks with Tehran were paused for a week because of the funeral ceremonies.
Earlier on Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf led the funeral prayers. Masoud Khamenei was seen weeping and wiping his tears with a scarf that in Iran is considered a symbol of revolutionary principles and solidarity with the Palestinians.
Crowds of Iranians streamed into the night at Tehran's Grand Mosque, many weeping and others beating their chests. Tehran's metro system reported seven million trips between Saturday evening and Sunday morning, as large numbers of people headed to the city center for the funeral ceremonies.
After what authorities describe as a massive funeral procession in central Tehran on Monday, the body will arrive in Qom, the center of Shiite religious authority in Iran, where further ceremonies will be held on Tuesday.
The body will then be flown to the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala for ceremonies on Wednesday. Khamenei will be buried on Thursday, following another funeral procession in Mashhad, near the shrine of Imam Reza, a site of great religious significance to Iranians.
The authorities plan to mobilize millions of people to participate in large public marches in the coming days, providing transportation, food and accommodation to increase the number of participants.
“Great sadness”
Mohammad Mirsalehani, a 38-year-old cleric, said, “Ali Khamenei was a father to us all, and with his passing we have become orphans. Our grief is immense.”
The body is scheduled to remain lying in state until Sunday evening, before being prepared for the funeral procession scheduled for Monday in the streets of the capital.
Authorities have declared Sunday and Monday as official holidays, and say they expect between 15 million and 20 million people to attend in Tehran alone.
After Monday's procession in Tehran, the coffin is scheduled to stop in several cities in Iran and Iraq, with the burial ceremony to be held on Thursday in Mashhad, the northeastern Iranian city and birthplace of Ali Khamenei.
political presence
Alongside the crowds of people, a large number of Iranian and foreign officials paid their respects to Khamenei's body on Friday.
Among the foreign delegations participating were also two delegations from the Lebanese Hezbollah and Hamas.
Ali Khamenei led Iran for more than three decades until he was killed at the age of 86.
His funeral was scheduled for March, but it was postponed because of the war.
To receive Iranians coming from all over the country, more than 400 tents belonging to the Iranian Red Crescent were set up in one of the capital's major parks.
