The body of Iran\u2019s supreme leader, killed in US-Israeli strikes that triggered the Middle East war, arrived at Tehran\u2019s Grand Mosalla on Friday ahead of his funeral, state media reported.<\/p>\n
Millions of people and a coterie of foreign dignitaries were expected to attend Saturday\u2019s official ceremony for Ali Khamenei, with Tehran\u2019s chief negotiator calling for a massive turnout to avenge his death.<\/p>\n
Photos showed mourners carrying Khamenei\u2019s coffin, emblazoned with Iran\u2019s tricolour flag, into the Grand Mosalla, one of the Islamic republic\u2019s most important ceremonial venues.<\/p>\n
Others show crowds at a pre-funeral ceremony clad in black, as the coffin was set down against a backdrop of red flowers and white butterflies hanging in the air.<\/p>\n
Ahmad Vahidi, head of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the military, made his first appearance since the start of the war in February, paying his respects at the coffin, Iranian media footage showed.<\/p>\n
Preparations for Khamenei\u2019s public funeral, initially delayed at the height of the war, are taking place as Iran and the United States observe a fragile ceasefire after signing a preliminary deal to halt the conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The body of Iran\u2019s supreme leader, killed in US-Israeli strikes that triggered the Middle East war, arrived at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[799,28133,327,262,56361,50318,34,7071,187,5346,650,2168,188,69,51],"class_list":["post-188644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-afghanistan","tag-ahmad-vahidi","tag-ali-khamenei","tag-china","tag-grand-mosalla","tag-imam-reza","tag-iran","tag-mashhad","tag-middle-east-war","tag-mohammad-bagher-ghalibaf","tag-pakistan","tag-qom","tag-revolutionary-guards","tag-tehran","tag-united-states"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116855010869687353","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188644","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=188644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}