Tehran, July 7:
Mourners dressed in black flooded into Iran’s capital Monday for a procession as part of the funeral of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with throngs of people calling for the death of US President Donald Trump.
Khamenei’s flag-draped coffin, and those of members of his family killed on February 28 in an airstrike at the start of the war launched by Israel and the United States, sat on board a truck decorated to resemble the ornamental grating that surrounds the shrine of an imam. The massive turnout, encouraged by Iran’s theocracy as a sign of strength, came as it negotiates with the US over a permanent end to the war.
Helicopter images aired on Iranian state television showed a massive crowd stretching from Tehran’s Azadi, or Freedom, Square for kilometres down a multilane street of the same name. The crowd appeared to be larger than the one that turned out for the 2020 procession for the late Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, which drew over 1 million people.
Authorities offered no immediate crowd count as the truck crept down the street. But people alongside the truck and elsewhere on the route carried placards, signs and banners calling for Trump’s death.
“Today that we are here for the funeral for our leader, it’s a very tough day,” mourner Fatima Hassan said. “We are not here to say goodbye to him, we are here for revenge. And we will take revenge.”
As the funeral has gone on, however, there have increasingly been calls from mourners to avenge Khamenei’s death. Mourners and the signs they carry have called for the killing of both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Such signs were seen again Monday along the procession’s route, with one effigy of Trump being hanged.
“We are here to show that his path will continue, and every single one of these people will continue down his path with clenched fists, and soon we will certainly avenge his death against the US and Israel,” said mourner Sahar Zaraatgar.
US federal authorities have been tracking Iranian threats against Trump and other administration officials for years, stemming from Trump’s ordering the 2020 killing of Soleimani, who led the elite Quds Force. Iran has repeatedly denied plotting to kill Trump, though hard-line propaganda footage long has suggested Trump was in Tehran’s crosshairs.
Trump, meanwhile, promised to destroy Iran’s civilization during the war, among other threats.