Khamenei’s Body Lies in State Ahead of Tehran Funeral

TEHRAN-The body of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei arrived at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla on Friday ahead of funeral ceremonies expected to draw millions of mourners and dozens of foreign delegations, as the country prepared for one of the largest state commemorations in its history.

State media showed Khamenei’s flag-draped coffin being carried into the Grand Mosalla, a major religious and ceremonial complex in the Iranian capital, where it will lie in state for three days before the funeral and burial ceremonies continue across Iran and neighboring Iraq.

The public funeral, scheduled for Saturday, comes after Khamenei was killed at the age of 86 in U.S.-Israeli strikes on his compound in central Tehran during the conflict that triggered the recent Middle East war. The ceremony had initially been postponed while fighting continued but resumed preparations after Iran and the United States reached a preliminary agreement that established a fragile ceasefire.

Images released from the venue showed mourners dressed in black accompanying the coffin as it was placed beneath decorations featuring red flowers and suspended white butterflies. Workers spent the previous day preparing the complex with flowers and landscaping while security personnel tightened access around the site.

“We are planting flowers and watering the shrubs for the farewell ceremony of our martyred guide,” worker Hossein Moghadassi told AFP. “People will come from all over Iran. There will be huge crowds.”

Iranian officials have projected attendance of between 15 million and 20 million people, a figure that, if realized, would make it the country’s largest state funeral. Authorities have declared public holidays in Tehran and the holy cities of Qom and Mashhad during the ceremonies, while public and private offices in the capital will remain closed from Saturday through Monday.

Traffic restrictions have been imposed across central Tehran, and Iranian authorities said the capital’s airspace would be partially closed from Friday before a full closure on Monday to facilitate the funeral events and associated security measures.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator and parliament speaker, called on Iranians to participate in large numbers, describing the funeral as a defining national moment.

“All the Iranian people… write a glorious page in the history of Islamic Iran through your presence,” Ghalibaf said in a statement. He added that “the nation’s call for vengeance must ring in the ears of the whole world.”

The bodies of Khamenei’s slain relatives will also be displayed during the period of public mourning at the Grand Mosalla.

After the Tehran ceremonies conclude, Khamenei’s coffin will be transported to the Iraqi holy cities of Najaf and Karbala before returning to Iran for burial on July 9 at the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad, his birthplace in northeastern Iran.

Representatives from around 30 countries are expected to attend the funeral. Pakistan said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would participate in the ceremony, while China, Afghanistan and several neighboring countries in the Caucasus region also announced plans to send official delegations.

Large numbers of pilgrims and mourners have already begun arriving from neighboring Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan ahead of the official funeral.

It remains unclear whether Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since succeeding his father, will attend the main ceremony in Tehran.