Tehran begins six-day funeral for Khamenei

Crowds gather to start paying last respects to former supreme leader; up to 30 million expected to attend delayed events

Tehran: Hundreds of thousands of mourners began a days-long funeral on Saturday for Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, beating their chests in sorrow before the glass case containing his flag-draped coffin in Tehran and calling for reven­ge against Israel and the US.

Iran’s top negotiator issued a warning to France and the UK over their comments about potentially launching joint patrols in the waterway, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas once passed in peacetime.

Mourners wept at the sight of Khamenei’s coffin alongside those of his family members also killed in the airstrike, with some chanting: “Our wo­rd is one! Revenge! Reven­ge!”  

Some carried banners and flags, while billboards across the city bore Khamenei’s image. Crowds of men rhythmically beat their chests in mourning, a common practice at Shia funerals. “Imam Khamenei was our heart, our father, our everything,” mourner Masoumeh Moham­madi said. “We will not rest until we avenge his death.” 

COFFINS ON DISPLAY AT THE GRAND MOSQUE

Khomeini’s funeral saw chaotic scenes as millions thronged his mourning ceremony and trip to the Grand Mosalla in Tehran. Khamenei’s death, only the second time Iran has lost a supreme leader since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, came months earlier and gave authorities more time to prepare.

On Saturday, volunteers sprayed cooling water on crowds in the summertime heat as stands outside offered food and drink. Men and women congregated separately inside the Grand Mosque after being checked by metal detectors and body searches. 

Police armed with assault rifles stood guard on surrounding streets. Many stayed outside in the street, lounging under the shade of trees, because the city had shut down.

The scale of the six-day, five-city funeral has been conceived to relay political and religious messages of resistance to the rest of the world. Up to 30 million people may attend at some point, the organisers claim. At the request of Iraqi politicians, Khamenei’s body will also be carried through the Iraqi Shia cities of Karbala and Najaf.

FUNERAL STARTS AS US MARKS 250TH ANNIV 

Iran chose July 4, the 250th anniversary of the creation of the US, to begin the funeral. While authorities did not acknowledge the timing, crowds at the ceremony in Tehran chanted: “Death to America!” “Death to Israel!” 

“We knocked the hell out of Iran,” US President Donald Trump said in a speech at the same time in South Dakota in front of Mount Rushmore. 

“They want to settle so badly. We gave them a week off for a funeral.” 

The American president was not forgotten in Tehran. In the crowd in the Grand Mosque, several mourners held a large flag that read: “#KillTrump.” As the rites went on, Iran’s chief negotiator Kazem Gharibabadi criticised a joint statement overnight from British PM Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, which su­ggested their militaries stood ready to patrol the strait.