Iran officials appear at Khamenei funeral as US war-end talks stall
Iran's top officials reappeared in Tehran for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's funeral prayers. The turnout underscored a show of regime unity as US talks and regional tensions remain fraught.
Iran's top officials and the brothers of its new supreme leader appeared in public in Tehran on Sunday for funeral prayers for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a sign that the leadership believes it can be seen safely as the country resists US demands in talks aimed at permanently ending the war.
Hundreds of thousands of mourners gathered for the prayers, chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" and calling for revenge over the February 28 attack that killed the 86-year-old supreme leader and other senior officials and triggered the war. Some hard-liners also called for the assassination of US President Donald Trump.
Iran's new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has not yet appeared in the funeral ceremonies, which are being held over several days. He is believed to be in hiding after reportedly being wounded in the airstrike that killed his father. Before the April ceasefire, Israel had targeted top leaders during the war and in at least one case likely used a public appearance to identify a target. Israel has also threatened to kill the younger Khamenei.
At Tehran's Grand Mosalla, 97-year-old Shiite cleric Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani led prayers for the late Khamenei and his family members who were killed in the strike. Also present were Khamenei's other sons, Masoud, Meysam and Mostafa, who had not been seen since the war. Revolutionary Guard chief Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, photographed publicly for the first time since the war on Thursday, was seen in the crowd wearing a black baseball cap and flanked by plainclothes security personnel. President Masoud Pezeshkian, Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who has led talks with the US, and Quds Force chief Esmail Qaani also attended. The crowd was larger than the day before, with mourners in black carrying banners and flags in Khamenei's honour.
Some of the anger at the gathering was directed at Trump by name. Posters and graffiti at the Grand Mosalla called for the killing of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Why is the biggest bastard in the world still alive?" poet Mohammad Rasouli, who emceed the event, told the crowd over loudspeakers, referring to Trump. "The world is no longer a good place" for Trump, he added, drawing cheers. "I came here to shout and seek revenge," said Gholamreza Sabooni, a 29-year-old grocery worker. "They killed our imam, we should kill their leader, Trump." Ziba Naderi, a 42-year-old nurse at the funeral, said Iran needed to follow Mojtaba Khamenei's orders. "I heard the call for revenge, but our leader should say what we need to do," she said. "And we must listen to him."
At the same time, Trump was speaking in Washington for the 250th anniversary of America's founding. "We've had tremendous success," he said of the US military. "You look at Venezuela, you look at Iran. We wiped it out, wiped out their military." US federal authorities have tracked Iranian threats against Trump and other officials for years, linked to Trump's order for the 2020 killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the former Quds Force chief. Iran has repeatedly denied plotting to kill Trump, though hard-line propaganda has long suggested he was in Tehran's crosshairs. During the war, Trump also threatened to destroy Iran's civilisation.
The funeral has also delayed talks with the US. Khamenei's body will be taken to other cities in Iran and to neighbouring Iraq, with authorities planning to carry his casket and others through Tehran's streets on Monday. Streets, airspace and daily life have been shut down for the mourning period, which will end on Thursday when he is buried at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, his birthplace. Authorities did not give an attendance figure for events on Saturday and Sunday, and mourning ceremonies were also held in other Iranian cities.
Negotiations on a permanent end to the war appear to be on hold until the funeral ends. The US is pressing ahead with talks that also cover fully reopening the Strait of Hormuz and rolling back Iran's disputed nuclear programme. Iran wants a measure of control over the strait, a key global energy route that it closed during the war, but the US has rejected those demands. The two sides also remain divided over other issues, including the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran's nuclear programme. A multinational maritime body overseen by the US Navy said on Sunday that the US had assisted 70 transits through the Strait of Hormuz in the previous 72 hours, including 18 on Saturday. It said traffic near Oman and Iran was steady but still below prewar levels, and that the threat level remained "substantial" while mine clearance and survey work continued.
For Iran's leadership, the funeral has become both a public mourning event and a display of unity during a pause in diplomacy. As mourner Mohammad Reza Sharifi put it, "Our foreign policy should not be shaped in a way that allows our martyred leader's blood to be dishonored and other countries can afford to do such things, without any serious response from our government and diplomatic system."
With PTI Inputs
Iran's top officials and the brothers of its new supreme leader appeared in public in Tehran on Sunday for funeral prayers for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a sign that the leadership believes it can be seen safely as the country resists US demands in talks aimed at permanently ending the war.
Hundreds of thousands of mourners gathered for the prayers, chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" and calling for revenge over the February 28 attack that killed the 86-year-old supreme leader and other senior officials and triggered the war. Some hard-liners also called for the assassination of US President Donald Trump.
Iran's new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has not yet appeared in the funeral ceremonies, which are being held over several days. He is believed to be in hiding after reportedly being wounded in the airstrike that killed his father. Before the April ceasefire, Israel had targeted top leaders during the war and in at least one case likely used a public appearance to identify a target. Israel has also threatened to kill the younger Khamenei.
At Tehran's Grand Mosalla, 97-year-old Shiite cleric Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani led prayers for the late Khamenei and his family members who were killed in the strike. Also present were Khamenei's other sons, Masoud, Meysam and Mostafa, who had not been seen since the war. Revolutionary Guard chief Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, photographed publicly for the first time since the war on Thursday, was seen in the crowd wearing a black baseball cap and flanked by plainclothes security personnel. President Masoud Pezeshkian, Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who has led talks with the US, and Quds Force chief Esmail Qaani also attended. The crowd was larger than the day before, with mourners in black carrying banners and flags in Khamenei's honour.
Some of the anger at the gathering was directed at Trump by name. Posters and graffiti at the Grand Mosalla called for the killing of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Why is the biggest bastard in the world still alive?" poet Mohammad Rasouli, who emceed the event, told the crowd over loudspeakers, referring to Trump. "The world is no longer a good place" for Trump, he added, drawing cheers. "I came here to shout and seek revenge," said Gholamreza Sabooni, a 29-year-old grocery worker. "They killed our imam, we should kill their leader, Trump." Ziba Naderi, a 42-year-old nurse at the funeral, said Iran needed to follow Mojtaba Khamenei's orders. "I heard the call for revenge, but our leader should say what we need to do," she said. "And we must listen to him."
At the same time, Trump was speaking in Washington for the 250th anniversary of America's founding. "We've had tremendous success," he said of the US military. "You look at Venezuela, you look at Iran. We wiped it out, wiped out their military." US federal authorities have tracked Iranian threats against Trump and other officials for years, linked to Trump's order for the 2020 killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the former Quds Force chief. Iran has repeatedly denied plotting to kill Trump, though hard-line propaganda has long suggested he was in Tehran's crosshairs. During the war, Trump also threatened to destroy Iran's civilisation.
The funeral has also delayed talks with the US. Khamenei's body will be taken to other cities in Iran and to neighbouring Iraq, with authorities planning to carry his casket and others through Tehran's streets on Monday. Streets, airspace and daily life have been shut down for the mourning period, which will end on Thursday when he is buried at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, his birthplace. Authorities did not give an attendance figure for events on Saturday and Sunday, and mourning ceremonies were also held in other Iranian cities.
Negotiations on a permanent end to the war appear to be on hold until the funeral ends. The US is pressing ahead with talks that also cover fully reopening the Strait of Hormuz and rolling back Iran's disputed nuclear programme. Iran wants a measure of control over the strait, a key global energy route that it closed during the war, but the US has rejected those demands. The two sides also remain divided over other issues, including the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran's nuclear programme. A multinational maritime body overseen by the US Navy said on Sunday that the US had assisted 70 transits through the Strait of Hormuz in the previous 72 hours, including 18 on Saturday. It said traffic near Oman and Iran was steady but still below prewar levels, and that the threat level remained "substantial" while mine clearance and survey work continued.
For Iran's leadership, the funeral has become both a public mourning event and a display of unity during a pause in diplomacy. As mourner Mohammad Reza Sharifi put it, "Our foreign policy should not be shaped in a way that allows our martyred leader's blood to be dishonored and other countries can afford to do such things, without any serious response from our government and diplomatic system."
With PTI Inputs
