Hundreds of thousands of mourners began a days-long funeral on Saturday for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, beating their chests in sorrow before the glass case containing his flag-draped coffin in Tehran and calling for revenge against Israel and the United States.
On Monday, mourners dressed in black flooded into Iran’s capital for a procession as part of the funeral. Khamenei’s flag-draped coffin sat aboard a low loader decorated with latticework and scripture, with those of his family members who were killed on February 28, in an air strike at the start of the war launched by Israel and the United States.
Khamenei ruled Iran for decades and was killed at the age of 86 along with his daughter-in-law, Zahra Haddad-Adel, his 14-month-old granddaughter, Zahra Mohammadi Golpayegani, and other family members.
The massive turnout came as the Islamic Republic negotiates with the US over a permanent end to the war. The final burial is on Thursday at the sprawling Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad, the ayatollah’s birthplace and Iran’s holiest city.
Helicopter images aired on Iranian state television showed a massive crowd stretching from Tehran’s Azadi – “freedom” – Square down a multi-lane street of the same name.
The crowd appeared to be larger than the one that turned out for the 2020 procession for Qassem Soleimani, the late Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps military officer assassinated by the United States.
Authorities offered no immediate crowd count as the truck crept down the street. People alongside the truck and elsewhere on the route carried placards, signs and banners calling for US President Donald Trump’s death.
“Today that we are here for the funeral for our leader, it’s a very tough day,” mourner Fatima Hassan said. “We are not here to say goodbye to him. We are here for revenge. And we will take revenge.”
Mourners reached out to touch the truck, and some threw scarves and other items for attendants to brush against the coffin, a common practice in Iran seen as a blessing. Attendants, some on the ladders of fire trucks, sprayed misted water across the crowds to cool them in the heat.
Authorities appeared concerned about the dangers of a large crowd alongside the procession, with officials over loudspeakers urging the public to walk slowly, not to push, and to stay to the edges of the street.
The coffins were taken through the streets of Tehran on a roughly 12-hour journey to Mehrabad International Airport, and Khamenei’s casket was flown to the Shia hawza (Islamic seminary) city of Qom, according to state television.
Authorities have shut down streets, airspace and daily life for the mourning, which began Saturday and will end Thursday.
“This is the last time I am seeing him,” said a weeping Maryam Alizadeh. “Our generation lived with him for decades.”
As the funeral went on, mourners have increasingly called for Khamenei’s death to be avenged. Mourners and the signs they carry have called for the killing of both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Such signs were seen again Monday along the procession’s route, with one effigy of Trump being hanged.
“We are here to show that his path will continue, and every single one of these people will continue down his path with clenched fists, and soon we will certainly avenge his death against the US and Israel,” said mourner Sahar Zaraatgar.
US federal authorities have been tracking Iranian threats against Trump and other administration officials for years, stemming from Trump’s ordering the 2020 killing of Soleimani, who led the elite Quds Force.
Iran has repeatedly denied plotting to kill Trump, though hardline propaganda footage long has suggested Trump was in Tehran’s crosshairs. Trump, meanwhile, promised to destroy Iran’s civilisation during the war, among other threats.
The US is eager to press ahead with negotiations with Iran aimed at fully reopening the Strait of Hormuz, rolling back Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme and reaching a permanent end to the war. Talks appear to be on hold until after the burial.
The funeral was in part a show of unity as Iran demands a measure of control over the strait, a vital waterway for global energy that it shut down during the war.
The US has rejected those demands, and the sides are divided on other key issues, including the nuclear programme and the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has yet to make an appearance in the funeral ceremonies, which are unfolding over several days. He is believed to be in hiding after reportedly being wounded in the air strike that killed his father.
At the height of the war, before an April ceasefire, Israel targeted top Iranian leaders, in at least one case likely using their public appearance to fix their position. It has also threatened to kill the younger Khamenei.
