{"id":189833,"date":"2026-07-04T06:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T06:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/189833\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T06:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T06:03:10","slug":"thousands-gather-in-iran-as-khamenei-funeral-ceremonies-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/189833\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands gather in Iran as Khamenei funeral ceremonies begin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Funeral ceremonies for Iran\u2019s late supreme leader Ali Khamenei officially began on Saturday, state television reported, an event drawing thousands and intended to serve as a show of strength to the Islamic republic\u2019s foes.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Iranian authorities say they anticipate between 15 and 20 million participants in Tehran alone over the next three days for tributes to the man who ran the country for three-and-a-half decades.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Six days of funeral ceremonies are planned to commemorate Khamenei, who ruled the Islamic republic as its No 1 from 1989 until his killing aged 86 on the first day of the US-Israeli war with Iran on February 28.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The events will be scrutinised in particular for any signs of Khamenei\u2019s son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei, who was named supreme leader a week after the killing of his father but is yet to appear in public.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"People attend a public farewell ceremony to pay their respects to Iran\u2019s late supreme leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran on Saturday. Photo: Reuters\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ad671c47-1ab4-4970-8f51-21c97cb6c96c_0693e825.jpg\" title=\"People attend a public farewell ceremony to pay their respects to Iran\u2019s late supreme leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran on Saturday. Photo: Reuters\"\/>People attend a public farewell ceremony to pay their respects to Iran\u2019s late supreme leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran on Saturday. Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Thousands of mourners carrying red banners \u2013 a symbol of vengeance \u2013 gathered in the courtyard of Tehran\u2019s vast Grand Mosalla religious complex waiting for the arrival of Khamenei\u2019s coffin, an Agence France-Presse journalist witnessed. Chants of \u201cdeath to America\u201d and \u201crevenge, revenge\u201d echoed at the venue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Funeral ceremonies for Iran\u2019s late supreme leader Ali Khamenei officially began on Saturday, state television reported, an event&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[799,6455,28133,327,27699,1411,100,34,94,393,7071,49,5346,2289,650,69],"class_list":["post-189833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tehran","tag-afghanistan","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-ahmad-vahidi","tag-ali-khamenei","tag-dmitry-medvedev","tag-hamas","tag-hezbollah","tag-iran","tag-iraq","tag-islamic-republic","tag-mashhad","tag-middle-east","tag-mohammad-bagher-ghalibaf","tag-mojtaba-khamenei","tag-pakistan","tag-tehran"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116860197642868841","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189833","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=189833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}