Hundreds of people were already waiting outside the funeral of Iran’s slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Friday night, ahead of a funeral that will be open to the public on Saturday morning.Khamenei will pay his respects at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla religious complex on Monday, which is expected to open at 6 a.m. local time (0230 GMT).
Khamenei laid to rest in Iran as funeral week begins
Dubai: The body of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lay in state in a vast hall in Tehran on Friday as clerics, officials, foreign dignitaries and other mourners paid their respects to Iran’s late supreme leader, who was killed by a US and Israeli bomb. Iran is holding a week-long mass funeral procession for Khamenei, whose 37-year rule ended in February, to express public love and revolutionary fervor for the Islamic Republic’s theocratic state.His body is expected to be transported to the important Shiite centers of Qom, Najaf and Karbala in Iran and Iraq before being buried on July 9 in Mashhad, the country’s holiest pilgrimage site.His coffin was unveiled Thursday night to a crowd of weeping supporters who swayed and banged their heads to songs as flowers were thrown from the coffin into the crowd. On Friday, coffins were placed in the Grand Prayer Hall built in memory of his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, along with those of family members killed in the same attack.The funeral comes at a critical time for Iran, where the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-backed clerical rulers are riding high after surviving what they see as an existential war against their most powerful enemy. Analysts say there is little support for the clerical leadership, while Moitaba Khamenei, the son of the new supreme leader, Khamenei, has not been seen in public since he was injured during a strike.Tehran’s streets were tightly controlled on Friday, with security vehicles lining the main roads and police and members of Iran’s black-shirted volunteers warning the United States and Israel against any attacks during the funeral.The coffin was covered with a black turban worn by clerics claiming to be descendants of Islam’s prophet Muhammad, and a folded plaid scarf that symbolizes revolutionary ideals and solidarity with the Palestinians in Iran.Overnight, in central Tehran, a crowd stood crying and chanting slogans. “God willing, the grief of the people can only be alleviated by avenging his blood, delivering justice and ensuring that the blood of our leaders is not unjustly committed,” said Mobina Razaaghi, an 18-year-old student who attended the funeral.
