Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed at 86 in a US-Israeli air strike on his Tehran residence on February 28 at the start of a four-month war, was laid in state on Friday, July 3, at the Grand Mosalla prayer hall, drawing foreign delegations from over 100 countries.
His coffin — along with those of his daughter, son-in-law and young granddaughter, who died in the same strike — was displayed before crowds who chanted and beat their chests in mourning. Delegations from Russia, China, Iraq, Pakistan, Armenia and elsewhere attended, along with relatives of slain Hezbollah figures Hassan Nasrallah and Imad Mughniyeh. Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, succeeded him as Supreme Leader in March but has rarely appeared in public since being wounded in the same strike.
Burial rites, delayed for months by the war, are scheduled to run July 4–9 across Tehran, Qom and Mashhad, with a final burial expected in Mashhad. Iranian security forces have locked down much of Tehran for the events, which come amid a fragile ceasefire and paused US-Iran negotiations. Analysts note the funeral doubles as a show of state strength at a moment when public support for the clerical establishment is described as thin, following years of sanctions and the deadly suppression of mass protests in January.
