Tehran is bracing for an immense farewell after the body of Iran’s supreme leader, killed in US-Israeli strikes that ignited the Middle East war, was brought to the Grand Mosalla ahead of his funeral, according to state media.
Officials expect millions of mourners and a slate of foreign dignitaries to gather tomorrow for the formal ceremony for Ali Khamenei, as Iran’s chief negotiator urged the public to turn out in force and answer his death with a show of defiance.
Images released from the scene showed mourners bearing Khamenei’s coffin, draped in Iran’s tricolour flag, into the Grand Mosalla, one of the Islamic republic’s foremost ceremonial sites.
Other photographs captured crowds dressed in black at a pre-funeral observance, with the coffin placed before an arrangement of red flowers as white butterflies hovered above.
Iranian state television also showed visitors paying their respects, including the foreign minister of Afghanistan’s Taliban government and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The appearance by Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi came only hours after a visit from Ahmad Massoud, leader of an anti-Taliban movement whose father was supported by Iran in the 1990s.
Preparations for Khamenei’s public funeral, which had initially been postponed at the height of the war, are unfolding as Iran and the United States observe a fragile ceasefire after signing a preliminary agreement aimed at stopping the conflict.
Khamenei to lie in state for three days at the Grand Mosalla
China and Iran’s neighbours in the Caucasus said they, too, would send representatives.
Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf had appealed to “all the Iranian people … to write a glorious page in the history of Islamic Iran through your presence”.
“The nation’s call for vengeance must ring in the ears of the whole world,” Mr Ghalibaf, who also serves as speaker of parliament, said in a statement.
Khamenei, revered by many Shias as a spiritual figure, was killed at 86 in strikes on his compound in central Tehran on 28 February, the opening day of the war.
He will lie in state for three days at the vast Grand Mosalla, now covered in banners bearing Khamenei’s image and selected quotations.
Coffins holding the remains of his relatives, including a young child who was also killed on 28 February, are there as well.
Khamenei’s son and successor, Mojtaba, was believed to have been seriously wounded in the attacks, and it remains unclear whether he will attend the main ceremony in Tehran.
He has not appeared in public since becoming supreme leader.
Commemorations across multiple cities
Officials say the ceremonies could draw between 15 million and 20 million mourners, a turnout that would make it the largest state funeral in the country’s history.
Mr Ghalibaf described it as “one of the most significant moments” in Iran’s history.
Tehran, along with the holy cities of Qom and Mashhad, where later stages of the funeral and burial rites will be held, is to observe public holidays during the ceremonies.
Authorities have ordered government and private offices in Tehran shut from tomorrow through Monday, while traffic controls will leave much of the city centre off limits to private vehicles.
Airspace over Tehran will be partially closed from today and fully shut on Monday.
After the ceremonies in Tehran, Khamenei’s body will be taken to the Iraqi holy cities of Najaf and Karbala before burial on 9 July at the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad, the northeastern city where he was born.
Representatives from about 30 countries are expected at the funeral, with attendees arriving from neighbouring Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
