Intl desk: Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was conspicuously absent from his father’s funeral, as senior regime figures joined thousands paying their respects to the late ayatollah on Sunday.
Ali Khamenei’s other three sons – Masoud, Mostafa and Meysam – all attended the service on Sunday, alongside officials including President Masoud Pezeshkian and Revolutionary Guards chief Ahmad Vahidi.
Speculation about Mojtaba’s condition – fuelled by rumours he was wounded in the same US-Israel air strikes that killed his father – has continued as he has not appeared in public since his appointment in early March.
The elder Khamenei ruled the Islamic republic from 1989 until his death in February.
Official funeral proceedings for late supreme leader began on Friday, with events planned across Iran and Iraq over the coming week.
Iranian authorities say 12-20 million people are expected to attend the ceremonies, which they are calling the “funeral of the century”.
Khamenei’s body is currently lying in state at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla religious complex, with a funeral service led by prominent Shia cleric Jafar Sobhani, a 97-year-old scholar who teaches at seminaries in the holy city of Qom.
Crowds of mourners have performed funeral prayers over the bodies of the martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and members of his family, who were assassinated in a terror attack earlier this year by the US-Israeli regimes.
Ayatollah Ja’far Sobhani led the funeral prayers at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla on Sunday morning.
The prayers were conducted in three stages. The first was offered for the body of the martyred Leader. The second was for the bodies of the Leader’s daughter, Seyyedeh Boshra Khamenei; one of the martyred Leader’s sons-in-law, Mesbah al-Hoda Baqeri; and the martyred Leader’s daughter-in-law, Zahra Haddad Adel. The third was offered for the martyred Leader’s granddaughter, Zahra Mohammadi Golpayegani, who was a toddler.
Three of the martyred leader’s sons—Mostafa, Masoud, and Maysam—stood in the front row of mourners offering prayers over the bodies of their father and other family members. It was their first public appearance since the US-Israeli war on Iran began on February 28.
The heads of the three branches of government, namely President Masoud Pezeshkian, Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, were also present in the front row, alongside other officials.
Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and several members of his family were martyred in an airstrike on his office and residence in Tehran on the first day of the US-Israeli war.
Memorial services for the martyred Leader and his family were held in Tehran on Friday, attended by senior officials from dozens of countries. A farewell ceremony for the martyred Leader began on Saturday morning at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Mosalla and will continue until Sunday evening, July 5. The following day, Tehran will host the funeral procession for the martyred Leader and his family members.
Another funeral procession will be held in the holy city of Qom on Tuesday, July 7. Special farewell and funeral ceremonies for the martyred Leader will also be held on Wednesday, July 8, in the Iraqi holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, before he is laid to rest at the shrine of Imam Reza (PBUH) in the holy city of Mashhad, northeastern Iran, on Thursday, July 9.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, referring to the ongoing historic funeral ceremonies of Martyr Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, says the Iranian nation has once again proved its love for the Leader of the Islamic Revolution.
In a message posted on his X account on Sunday, Ghalibaf mentioned the chant of mourners, ‘ Ya Latharat al-Hussein (O Avengers of Hussein), saying the Iranian people, today, raised a united cry for their martyred Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.
According to him, the proud and invincible nation of Islamic Iran bore witness in unison to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, during the funeral prayers held at Tehran’s Mosalla for His Eminence Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and other martyrs of his family.
The top parliamentarian recalled the voices of the mourners and wrote that they were crying from the depths of their souls that they knew nothing of the late Leader but goodness.
Millions of Iranians from all across the country have converged on the capital city to pay their respects to Martyr Ayatollah Khamenei, who will be laid to rest in the holy city of Mashhad after funeral ceremonies in Tehran and Qom, as well as the Iraqi holy cities of Najaf and Karbala.
Ayatollah Khamenei and several members of his household were martyred in terrorist attacks launched by American and Zionist regimes as part of their unprovoked war of aggression against Iran.
Source: IRNA and BBC
