The body of Iran\u2019s supreme leader, who was 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.\n<\/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.\n<\/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.\n<\/p>\n
Others show crowds at a pre-funeral ceremony clad in black, as the coffin is set down against a backdrop of red flowers and white butterflies hanging in the air.<\/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.\n<\/p>\n
Pakistan, a key mediator in the US-Iran talks, said its Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would be attend the ceremony.\n<\/p>\n
China, Afghanistan and Iran\u2019s neighbours in the Caucasus region said they would also be sending representatives.<\/p>\n
Workers were readying the Grand Mosalla on Thursday, while security teams stopped passing cars and curious bystanders looked on.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are planting flowers and watering the shrubs for the farewell ceremony of our martyred guide,\u201d said worker Hossein Moghadassi, clad in a hat and a scarf to cover his face as the temperature soared.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople will come from all over Iran. There will be huge crowds.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Tehran\u2019s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf had called on Thursday for \u201call the Iranian people\u2026to write a glorious page in the history of Islamic Iran through your presence.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe nation\u2019s call for vengeance must ring in the ears of the whole world,\u201d Ghalibaf, who is also Iran\u2019s parliament speaker, added in a statement. <\/p>\n
Khamenei, a spiritual figure for many Shias, was killed at the age of 86 in strikes on his compound in the centre of the Iranian capital.\n<\/p>\n
He will lie in state for three days at the colossal Grand Mosalla, which has been draped in banners featuring images and quotes of Khamenei.<\/p>\n
The bodies of his slain relatives will also be presented.\n<\/p>\n
The ceremonies are expected to draw between 15 and 20 million mourners, according to officials, which would make it the biggest state funeral in the country\u2019s history.\n<\/p>\n
Ghalibaf called it \u201cone of the most significant moments\u201d in Iran\u2019s history.\n<\/p>\n
Tehran, as well as the holy cities of Qom and Mashhad, which will host later stages of the funeral and burial ceremonies, will observe public holidays while the events are underway.\n<\/p>\n
Authorities have ordered public and private offices in Tehran to close from Saturday through Monday, while traffic restrictions will make much of the city centre inaccessible to private vehicles.\n<\/p>\n
The airspace over Tehran will be partially closed from Friday and fully closed on Monday.\n<\/p>\n
Following the ceremonies in Tehran, Khamenei\u2019s body will be taken to the Iraqi holy cities of Najaf and Karbala before his burial on July 9 at the shrine of Imam Reza in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad, his birthplace.<\/p>\n
It remains unknown if Khamenei\u2019s son and successor Mojtaba, who has not been seen in public since becoming supreme leader, will be present at the main ceremony in Tehran.\n<\/p>\n
Representatives from around 30 countries are expected to attend the funeral, with people pouring in from neighbouring Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.\n<\/p>\n
AFP\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The body of Iran\u2019s supreme leader, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes that triggered the Middle East war,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[327,1960,56361,34,187,5346,53683,1974,69,776],"class_list":["post-188703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tehran","tag-ali-khamenei","tag-funeral","tag-grand-mosalla","tag-iran","tag-middle-east-war","tag-mohammad-bagher-ghalibaf","tag-state-funeral","tag-supreme-leader","tag-tehran","tag-us-israeli-strikes"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116855239133447018","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188703","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=188703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}