Tehran, June 15:
The funeral for Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is scheduled to begin here on July 4, Iranian media reported. Farewell ceremonies will be held at Imam Khomeini’s Mosalla prayer hall in Tehran on July 4-5, followed by funeral processions in the capital and the central city of Qom on July 6-7, read a statement released by the headquarters responsible for Khamenei’s commemoration, which was carried by Iranian media.
According to the statement, the final funeral ceremony will be held in the northeastern city of Mashhad on July 9, following which the late leader will be laid to rest at the holy shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Imam of Shiite Muslims, in the same city and on the same day.
The long-serving supreme leader of Iran was killed in a joint US-Israeli airstrike on February 28. His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, was selected as Iran’s new supreme leader in early March, Xinhua news agency reported.
Earlier in March, Khamenei was killed in an epochal attack by the US and Israel, marking an inflection point in the 46-year Shia-theocratic rule, as Tehran’s retaliation set off conflagrations in a swath of the Middle East.
US President Donald Trump announced then the killing of the 86-year-old cleric, ending his iron-fisted rule over Iran for 36 years. Trump said on Truth Social, “He was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do”.
Four relatives of Khamenei, including his daughter, grandchild and son-in-law, were also killed in the US-Israeli strikes, reported Iran’s Fars News Agency on Sunday, citing sources.