{"id":189944,"date":"2026-07-04T08:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T08:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/189944\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T08:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T08:11:11","slug":"how-iran-will-try-to-use-khameneis-funeral-to-hide-cracks-in-regime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/189944\/","title":{"rendered":"How Iran will try to use Khamenei\u2019s funeral to hide cracks in regime"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Iran claims as many as 20 million people are expected to attend processions across the country in the coming days<\/a> for the delayed mass funeral rites of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei<\/a>, more than four months after he was killed in a US-Israeli airstrike.<\/p>\n

The regime will frame such a show of public devotion as proof of their resilience after surviving what they saw as an existential war<\/a> with the United States and Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They hope to mobilise the public to flood the cities, offering transport, food and accommodation to lift the numbers, and are welcoming foreign dignitaries to show Iran<\/a> still has powerful friends around.<\/p>\n

However, the supreme leader\u2019s injured son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei is not expected to attend as security concerns hang over the ceremony.<\/p>\n

Iranians descended on the capital on Friday to see the late leader, whose body has been carefully washed and wrapped ahead of a six-day journey around the country ending in its final resting place in his hometown of Mashhad.<\/p>\n

\"AyatollahAyatollah Ali Khamenei will be buried after a six day procession (Pictured: a poster at Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque on July 3, 2026 in Tehran) (Getty)<\/p>\n

But behind the outpouring of public grief, many still feel the pressures of inflation, international sanctions and repression that inspired the mass protests that swept the country in December and January.<\/p>\n

With those issues unresolved, analysts say the regime may be unable to prevent its eventual collapse, despite efforts both at home and abroad to claim that the revolution survived its war with the West.<\/p>\n

Funeral a message of resilience for ailing regime<\/p>\n

Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, 86, was killed in a strike on 28 February, the first day of the war, ending a 37-year reign as supreme leader of Iran.<\/p>\n

His death marked an epochal moment for the 47-year-old Islamic Republic at a precarious time in its history, just weeks after rare anti-government protests broke out across the country and were put down by force.<\/p>\n

Uncertainty now surrounds the future of the regime under his son, Mojtaba, who must contend with a war-ravaged economy, damaged regional ties and an internal leadership struggle.<\/p>\n

But a sprawling six-day funeral for the late supreme leader now lets the regime present itself as emboldened from the loss of its leader and controlling its future in leading Iran.<\/p>\n

\"IranianIranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf embraces Ziyad al-Nakhalah, Secretary-General of Palestinian Islamic Jihad as they attend a farewell ceremony for Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Reuters)<\/p>\n

Dr Andreas Krieg, associate professor in security studies at King’s College London, told The Independent the funeral will be a carefully orchestrated spectacle \u201cinstrumentalised to promote the Islamic Republic\u2019s core narratives of martyrdom, resilience and resistance\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe former Supreme Leader\u2019s martyrdom will elevate him in Shia ideology as well as in the revolutionary ideology of the Islamic Republic,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a unique rallying point for the Islamic Republic to show that despite the death of their leader by Israel\/US air strikes the revolution lives on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Ranj Alaaldin, senior associate fellow, international security at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), said that holding the procession now allows the leadership to \u201cproject continuity and legitimacy at a moment when many have portrayed the ceasefire agreement as a setback for the United States rather than for Iran\u201d.<\/p>\n

While the war allowed the regime to divert attention from Iran\u2019s internal grievances and tensions, an end to the conflict \u201cmay now pave the way for the full domestic implications of the war to emerge\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if Tehran secures favourable terms with Washington, sanctions relief alone is unlikely to prevent the revival of the protest movement, which could mobilise at a moment where the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, set up to protect the clerical ruling system] is confronting existential threats on multiple fronts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat could precipitate a brutal crackdown on the civilian population and usher in a prolonged period of instability as the regime struggles to contain mounting internal and external challenges simultaneously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA man places a turban over the coffin of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday (Reuters)<\/p>\n

A curated show of support at home and abroad<\/p>\n

Qom Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Mohammad Saidi told Iranian state media the funeral would \u201cin effect be another referendum for the Islamic Republic\u201d.<\/p>\n

To facilitate the right outcome, the regime is now converting public spaces into temporary lodgings and organising food for millions of mourners expected in the days ahead.<\/p>\n

Hotels are offering 50% discounts, schools, mosques and sports halls have been prepared to house mourners, and bus and rail networks are being diverted to serve the main events.<\/p>\n

Mourning ceremonies begin at Tehran\u2019s Grand Mosalla on Saturday and Sunday, followed by a funeral procession.<\/p>\n

After what authorities are billing as a massive procession in central Tehran on Monday, the remains will be taken to the seminary city of Qom, the centre of Iran’s Shi’ite hierarchy, for ceremonies on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Ceremonies will then be held in Iraq’s shrine cities of Najaf and Kerbala on Wednesday with prominent attendees from Iran’s regional network of Shi’ite proxies.<\/p>\n

\"PakistaniPakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif attends the ceremony at the Imam Khomenei Grand Mosalla in Tehran on Friday (Reuters)<\/p>\n

Khamenei will be buried on Thursday, after another procession, in Mashhad near the tomb of the Imam Reza, a figure of great devotion in Iran.<\/p>\n

Around 30 countries are expected to send delegations to Iran for the funeral, including senior figures from Russia, Pakistan and Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban.<\/p>\n

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, Chinese National People’s Congress deputy head He Wei, and Iraqi president Nizar Amedi were among the foreign leaders and officials attending.<\/p>\n

Pakistan – which has mediated between Iran and the United States – sent prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Asim Munir.<\/p>\n

Dr Alaaldin said the regime would be using the funeral to show it is \u201cneither isolated nor without friends\u201d and to \u201creinforce the message that the international order extends beyond Washington and the West\u201d.<\/p>\n

Iran’s own political leaders \u2014 the president, parliament speaker, foreign minister and others \u2014 also filed in to weep and pray on Friday morning, having warned the US and Israel against any attacks during the funeral.<\/p>\n

A group of generals stood saluting in front of the coffin. Among them was the new Revolutionary Guards head Ahmad Vahidi, having not appeared in public since his appointment for fear of assassination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[4509,9155,1144,13360,177,7677,56710,5084,34,201,81,5485,56709,56708,44233,53683,69],"class_list":["post-189944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-2026-iran-conflict","tag-ayatollah","tag-ayatollah-khamenei","tag-color-image","tag-conflict","tag-courtyard","tag-grand-mosque","tag-horizontal","tag-iran","tag-photography","tag-politics","tag-politics-and-government","tag-poster","tag-representing","tag-showing","tag-state-funeral","tag-tehran"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116860701206996241","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189944","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=189944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}