BAGHDAD \u2014 A group of Iraqi lawmakers has thrown its support behind plans to hold funeral ceremonies for Iran\u2019s late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Iraq, visiting the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad on Monday to welcome Tehran\u2019s approval of a procession expected to end with his burial in Najaf.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Kalabi said the delegation met Iran\u2019s ambassador to express gratitude for \u201chis tremendous efforts in carrying our message to the Islamic Republic in order to approve the funeral procession\u201d of Khamenei and his family. He described Khamenei as having \u201cdied defending Islam with his sons, his family and his children, emulating his grandfather Imam Hussein,\u201d and said he was confident \u201cthe Iraqi people will repay the favor for the blood of the Sayyid leader.\u201d<\/p>\n
The visit comes days after Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani announced that Khamenei\u2019s body would be transferred to Iraq on July 8 following ceremonies in Tehran and Qom. Ceremonies are scheduled in Tehran on July 4 and 5, a funeral procession in the capital on July 6 and a ceremony in Qom on July 7 before the transfer. Iranian officials say the move follows Khamenei\u2019s reported request to be buried in Najaf, home to the shrine of Imam Ali and one of Shia Islam\u2019s holiest cities, where he spent part of his religious studies before becoming supreme leader.<\/p>\n
Khamenei was killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAGHDAD \u2014 A group of Iraqi lawmakers has thrown its support behind plans to hold funeral ceremonies for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[592,623,1960,12310,34,94,3038,49356,90,69,596],"class_list":["post-171668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tehran","tag-and","tag-for","tag-funeral","tag-his","tag-iran","tag-iraq","tag-iraqi","tag-july","tag-khamenei","tag-tehran","tag-the"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116792768774630387","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}