Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis: Low-key guest list for Khamenei’s funeral reveals how isolated Iran has become
Iran on Friday began a week of funerals for former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a joint U.S.-Israeli attack in February. The ceremony will move from Tehran to Qom, then to Najaf, Iraq, before finally being buried in his hometown of Mashhad next Thursday. Iranian authorities are preparing for an estimated 10 million mourners in the four cities.The foreign guest list is shaping up along sharp geopolitical lines. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has confirmed that he will attend, making him the highest-profile foreign leader to attend the meeting. Tajik President Emomali Rahmon is also expected to become head of state. Iran’s deputy interior minister confirmed that EU leaders “would not have the honor” to attend, citing their failure to condemn the attack that killed Khamenei. The United States, Britain, Israel, Canada and Australia were not invited.Russia, China and India – all personally invited by President Masoud Pezeshkian – have all opted to downgrade. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will not attend in person; Beijing will send a senior member of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee and Moscow is expected to send a Security Council official. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declined, citing a scheduled visit to Indonesia; New Delhi will be represented by Minister of State Pabitra Margarita and Bihar Governor Arif Mohammad Khan. Congress leader and former foreign minister Salman Khurshid is also said to be attending. High-level delegations from Iraq, Qatar, Lebanon, Syria, Venezuela, Belarus, North Korea and several Central Asian countries are expected to attend. Representatives from Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthis and Iraqi Shiite militias are also expected to attend.Iranian officials have not confirmed Mojtaba Khameneiof attendance. Mojtaba has not been seen or photographed in public since strikes in February killed and injured his father. The regime insists that young Khamenei is alive and in hiding for his own safety, but Western intelligence officials have expressed serious doubts about that claim, fearing that Tehran may have concealed the death or total incapacitation. His absence or presence at the funeral will be the most high-profile moment of the week.The funeral also took place amid continued threats of retaliation from the regime. Gen. Ali Abdullahi, commander of the Khatam al-Anbia Central Command, issued a new warning on Thursday. “Our enemies must consider very carefully the response of our armed forces to any threat or aggression against our territory,” he said. “We warn our enemies, especially the United States and the Zionist entity, not to make any miscalculations.“Fox News quoted an analyst as saying, “For a regime that claims to lead a front from Beirut to Sanaa, regional attendance at the funeral of its founder and successor was a sign of isolation through a grand ceremony.He added: “For Washington, this is a useful reading: the war has given Tehran a smaller, more regional axis than the regime advertises.”
