Preparation is underway for a week-long funeral for the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in the US and Israel war against Iran, as International Editor Emma Murphy reports
Huge crowds are expected across Iran as people gather to mourn the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the US-Israel war.
During the week-long mourning period, Khamenei’s body will be carried across five cities in two countries, with millions of mourners expected to fill the streets in his honour.
The former leader will be on display at Tehran’s Grand Mosque on Saturday and Sunday before his coffin is paraded through the streets of Tehran on Monday, where it will then be taken to the Shia city of Qom, some 120 kilometres (75 miles) to the south.
Iranian officials have suggested between four and 15 million mourners could attend, which would make it the largest funeral in modern history.
Khamenei, who led Iran for nearly four decades, was killed during coordinated daytime US-Israeli strikes on Tehran on February 28.
His funeral was delayed as fighting continued.
But an uneasy 60-day ceasefire, capped by an interim deal with the United States, has allowed authorities to hold the huge-scale ceremony, which will be attended by top officials, some of whom have not been seen for months.
It remains unclear whether Khamenei’s son, Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, will make his first public appearance during the ceremonies.
He is believed to have been injured in the attack that killed his father and remains in hiding.
Huge-scale preparations
National holidays have been declared across the cities through which Khamenei’s body will pass, to encourage people to commemorate the late supreme leader.
From Saturday, Tehran’s international and domestic airports will be shut.
The capital, Tehran, a city of 17 million people, will undergo the largest traffic operation in its history, with private vehicles near the procession banned.
More than 700 parking areas are to be made to free up space for the millions expected to descend on the city.
With massive crowds expected, firefighters have installed more than 6,000 overhead water sprinklers across the square to keep the crowds cool under the scorching July sun.
Fifty million pieces of bread will be baked to feed the mourners, with 16 mobile bakeries deployed in the capital, the Basij paramilitary volunteer force said, according to Iranian media.
Schedule of events
Khamenei’s body is currently on display at Tehran’s Grand Mosque, and it will remain there over the weekend.
Officials have been paying their respects on Friday before Khamenei’s flag-draped coffin, which lies alongside family members killed in the Israeli airstrike.
The dead being honored include a son-in-law, his eldest daughter, a 14-month-old granddaughter and the wife of Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
His body is scheduled to lie in state on the 250th American Independence Day, an apparently deliberate decision, according to reports from CNN.
At 6am (local time) on Saturday, Khamenei’s body will be placed on an elevated stage, inside the massive Imam Khomeini Mosalla complex.
On Monday, it will be paraded through the streets of Tehran before being transported 75 miles south to the seminary city of Qom.
On Wednesday, Khamenei’s body will be taken to the shrine of Imam al-Husayn in Karbala, Iraq. Husayn is the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and a symbol of resistance to the followers of Shia Islam.
Khamenei’s body will finally be brought to Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, where authorities say he will be buried at the Imam Reza shrine.
Imam Reza was Shia Islam’s eighth imam, and millions of pilgrims visit the shrine each year.
A hadith, or saying, states that anyone with sorrow or sin will no longer carry these burdens by visiting there.
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