Three sons of Iran’s slain leader Khamenei appear at funeral, but not his successor
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Mourners attending a public farewell ceremony on July 5 to pay their respects to late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- Three sons of slain Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared at his funeral, but Mojtaba, his successor son, was absent.
- Iran is holding a week of mass funeral ceremonies across Iran and Iraq.
- Authorities plan large processions with extensive support, as the coffin is moved from Tehran to Qom, then to Shi’ite holy cities in Iraq, before final burial in Mashhad.
AI generated
TEHRAN – Three sons of the slain Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, prayed beside his coffin and those of four other family members on July 5, but Mojtaba Khamenei, the son who has succeeded him as Iran’s supreme leader, did not make an appearance.
State TV showed Mostafa, Meysam and Masoud Khamenei praying behind the coffins laid out in the vast courtyard of the Imam Khomeini Mosalla of Tehran, a sprawling religious complex.
Their father, alongside several other members of the family, was killed in an air strike when the United States and Israel launched a war on Iran on Feb 28.
The conflict, which raged for several weeks before the sides reached a shaky ceasefire, has caused death and destruction across the region and left Iran’s theocratic government, backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, in power.
In a show of public devotion to the state and revolutionary zeal, the Islamic Republic is staging a week of mass funeral processions for Khamenei, including taking his remains to Shi’ite religious sites in neighbouring Iraq.
After a day lying in state indoors for senior Iranian leaders and foreign officials to visit, Khamenei’s coffin was displayed outdoors on July 4 under glass, along with those of his daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and 14-month-old granddaughter.
On July 5, tens of thousands more mourners, including soldiers, seminary students and ordinary men and women filed into the Mosalla to pay their respects to Khamenei and his family, waving flags emblazoned with promises of revenge against America and Israel.
Others prayed in unison at the complex named after Iran’s first supreme leader Khomeini, whom Khamenei succeeded in 1989.
The farewell ceremony was extended by about an hour to 10pm local time due to the high number of people taking part, state media reported.
No sightings of Mojtaba
There has still been no public sighting or image released of Mojtaba, who is said to have been injured in the attack that killed his father and the other family members on Feb 28, when Israel and the US bombed Iranian targets at the start of the war.
Mojtaba Khamenei’s face was disfigured, and he suffered a significant injury to one or both legs, people close to his inner circle told Reuters.
One disappointed mourner said she had hoped to see the new supreme leader during the funeral events.
“Until the last moment, before the prayer began, I kept telling those around me that I hoped (Mojtaba Khamenei) himself would come. That was our only wish,” a young woman wearing makeup and sunglasses told the semi-official Tasnim news agency in an interview.
Mourners during a public farewell ceremony to pay their respects to the late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
PHOTO: REUTERS
A ceasefire has suspended the four-month-old war under an agreement with Washington that Iran’s authorities say will ultimately bring huge economic benefits, in line with what they describe as a victory over a superpower.
During the war, more than 3,000 people were killed, including many of Iran’s most senior politicians and military commanders.
Military bases and major infrastructure projects were destroyed causing billions of dollars in damage.
But Iran successfully struck US bases in the region, inflicted pain on the Gulf Arab countries that host them, and asserted its control of the Strait of Hormuz, causing a spike in global energy prices, which US President Donald Trump said led him to push faster for peace.
The interim deal reached in June includes the unfreezing of billions of dollars in Iranian assets held abroad, and waivers from financial sanctions that had brought Iran’s economy to its knees.
Trump told the Axios news website that peace talks had been paused for a week because of the events surrounding the funeral.
On July 5, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf prayed behind the coffins.
Masoud Khamenei was seen crying and wiping away his tears with a keffiyeh – the chequered scarf that is a symbol in Iran of militant revolutionary ideals and solidarity with Palestinians – as an imam recited funeral prayers.
Crowds of Iranians, many weeping and some beating their chests, have thronged the Mosalla, including overnight.
The Iranian metro railway network said it clocked seven million trips from late on July 4 to the morning of July 5 as people flocked to the centre.
After what the authorities are billing as a massive procession in central Tehran on July 6, the remains will be taken to the seminary city of Qom, the centre of Iran’s Shi’ite hierarchy, for ceremonies on July 7.
His body will be moved by land in a special vehicle, Iran’s state media cited an official as saying.
From there, the body will be flown to Iraq for ceremonies in the Shi’ite holy shrine cities of Najaf and Kerbala on July 8.
It will return to Iran on July 9 for another procession in Mashhad, to be buried near the tomb of another of the mediaeval Shi’ite imams.
The authorities plan to mobilise millions of people for the big processions over the coming days, offering transport, food and lodging. REUTERS
