A billboard depicting Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei at Valiasr Square in Tehran, Iran. Photo: Reuters
The body of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes, arrived at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla religious complex ahead of his funeral, state media reported on Friday.
“The body of the martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution has arrived at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla,” IRNA wrote on Telegram, using the complex’s official name.
Iran prepares to bury supreme leader with week of mass mourning
Iran’s ruling clerics are preparing days of mass funeral rites for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a show of public devotion to the Islamic Republic and proof that its revolutionary fervor still burns strong.
The funeral events will begin over the weekend in Tehran, with mass processions planned next week in Qom and Mashhad and ceremonies in Iraq.
“The large public turnout at the funeral procession of the martyred leader and the other martyrs will, in effect, be another referendum for the Islamic Republic,” Qom Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Mohammad Saidi declared to state media.
Read: Iran warns US, Israel against attacks ahead of funeral processions for Khamenei
If they do see it as a referendum, authorities are not leaving the result to chance.
They hope to mobilise millions of supporters to flood Iran’s cities, laying on transport, accommodation and food, to proclaim the might of their theocratic state after it survived what they saw as an existential war.
Khamenei’s death and the succession of his son Mojtaba as Iran’s third supreme leader, in a conflict with its greatest foes, mark an epochal moment in the Islamic Republic’s 47-year history. Mojtaba, dangerously wounded in the strike that killed his father, has not been seen in any new image since the war began.
Trump says Iran has agreed to ‘just about everything we need’ in talks
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that negotiations with Iran are progressing, adding that he believes Tehran has agreed to nearly all of Washington’s key demands.
“We’re negotiating …I think they’ve agreed to just about everything we need,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC.
Trump reiterated that the US is not seeking regime change in Iran, saying Washington’s objective remains preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“We’re not looking for regime change. I’m looking for something very simple: they cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he said.
Trump also defended recent US military action against Iran, saying the country had been “totally defeated militarily”.
Read more: US won’t resume military action in Iran unless necessary: VP JD Vance
“I’ve defeated them militarily. They’re totally defeated militarily. They have some missiles left, we could wipe them out too, and I hit them three times last week very hard because they sent a drone into a ship,” he said.
Qatari and Pakistani mediators said Thursday that the next round of US-Iran talks would be held “at the earliest possible time,” after the funeral ceremonies for Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, with funeral ceremonies scheduled to run from July 4 through July 9.
