The funeral prayers for Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were offered on Sunday in Tehran. The funeral prayers were reportedly attended by hundreds of thousands of mourners, as well as foreign delegations. Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani led the funeral prayers for the late Iranian leader, which took place at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Mosalla.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and other senior officials attended the funeral ceremony. The funeral prayers were conducted in three stages, with separate prayers offered for Khamenei and members of his family who were killed alongside him in February last.
The second prayer was offered for Seyyedeh Boshra Hosseini Khamenei, Mesbah Al Hoda Baqeri and Zahra Haddad Adel, while a third prayer was held for Khamenei’s granddaughter, Zahra Mohammadi Golpayegani.
Before his burial, Khamenei’s body will be taken to the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala for additional funeral ceremonies. The main funeral procession in Tehran is scheduled to take place on Monday, followed by ceremonies in Qom on Tuesday. Additional farewell and funeral ceremonies are also planned for Wednesday in the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala. He is scheduled to be buried in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad at the Imam Reza Shrine.
Khamenei was killed in a joint US-Israeli attack on February 28. Following his death, Iran appointed a new supreme leader on March 8, while the funeral and burial ceremonies for the late leader were postponed in view of the US-Israeli attacks. Khamenei ruled the Iranian republic from 1989 until he was killed aged 86 in an airstrike on the first day of the US-Israeli war with Iran on February 28.
Khamenei’s son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei, who is said to have been wounded in the February 28 attack, has not appeared in public since being named supreme leader and was notably absent from the funeral prayers. The late supreme leader’s other three sons, Masoud, Mostafa and Meysam, were in attendance.
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