The funeral of Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, Iran's top religious and political authority, who was killed in a surprise U.S.-Israeli airstrike in February, will be held 126 days after death.
On the 13th (local time), according to IRNA and other Iranian outlets, Khamenei's state funeral will be held over several days starting July 4. Under the detailed schedule, on July 4 and 5, a farewell event will take place at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque in the capital, Tehran, where ordinary citizens will pay their respects to the body and bid a final farewell.
Next, on the 6th, a large funeral procession will move through central Tehran, and on the 7th, a memorial service will be held in "Qom," a major Shiite holy site. The procession will conclude on the 9th by moving to Mashhad, Khamenei's hometown and another holy city, to lay the body to final rest at the Imam Reza shrine.
Khamenei, who ruled from the pinnacle of Iran's theocratic system for 37 years, died at the scene with family members on Feb. 28, the first day of the war, when U.S. and Israeli strikes hit his Tehran residence.
Initially, Iranian authorities sought to hold the funeral in March, but as the full-scale war continued, they postponed the schedule indefinitely. Instead, in early April, on the 40th day after death, they sought to ease the grief with a large nationwide memorial.
Meanwhile, the fact that July 4, which opens the curtain on the funeral, coincides exactly with the 250th anniversary of U.S. Independence Day also creates a peculiar tension. In addition, it is a matter of keen interest whether Mojtaba Khamenei, Khamenei's son and successor as supreme leader, who inherited power after Khamenei's death but has remained shrouded in secrecy for personal security and other reasons, will make his first public appearance through this state funeral.
Khamenei joined hands with Ruhollah Khomeini in 1978 to lead the Islamic Revolution that toppled the pro-U.S. Pahlavi dynasty, making him a founding contributor of the Islamic Republic of Iran. After the death of the first leader, Khomeini, in 1989, he rose to become the second supreme leader.