Three sons of former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Sunday made a rare public appearance at his funeral but there was still no sign of their brother and his successor Mojtaba Khamenei.
Crowds of thousands for the second day in a row filled the Grand Mosalla religious complex in Tehran for the funeral ceremonies of Khamenei and four family members killed on February 28 in Israeli airstrikes based on US intelligence.
As well as laying to rest the man who ruled the Islamic republic for over three-and-a-half decades, the funerals are a chance for the authorities to burnish their resilience after five weeks at war with Israel and the US, which the theocratic system, in place since 1979, survived despite the loss of key figures.
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Parliament speaker and chief negotiator with the US Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, one of the most prominent faces of the post-Ali Khamenei era, hailed on X how the “proud and invincible nation of Islamic Iran unanimously” paid tribute to its “martyr”.
A funeral procession is to take place on Monday in Tehran, followed by similar events in the clerical hub of Qom on Tuesday and Iraq on Wednesday, culminating with the burial in Khamenei’s hometown of Mashhad in northeastern Iran on Thursday.
The ceremonies on Sunday were marked by the appearance of Ali Khamenei’s eldest son Mostafa and the two younger siblings Masoud and Meysam, all clerics.
– ‘Blessed end’ –
But their presence only further highlighted the absence from the funerals of Mojtaba Khamenei, who was named supreme leader shortly after his father’s killing but has yet to appear in public.
Officials have said he was wounded in the airstrikes but the severity of his injuries remains unclear. So far, he has only communicated through written statements.
The remaining days of the funerals — in particular the burial on Thursday — will be closely watched to see if Mojtaba Khamenei appears in public.
The new commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, Ahmad Vahidi, whose predecessor was killed in the February 28 strikes, appeared at the funerals for a second time on Sunday, this time in the open air, after he went unseen throughout the war.
Esmail Qaani, the shadowy head of the Guards’ Quds Force — responsible for its foreign operations — also made a rare appearance, telling Iranian TV that Khamenei’s “blessed end” was fitting after a lifetime of “striving”.
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Senior cleric Grand Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani, 97, recited the funeral prayer for Khamenei ahead of his body being moved out of the complex for the procession Monday.
– ‘Demand revenge’ –
The government is also eager to tout the mass mobilisation in support of the authorities after mass protests in January that rights groups say were quelled by a crackdown that left thousands dead.
With Sunday a public holiday across Iran, crowds thronged the vast religious complex, kept cool by a sprinkler system in temperatures of 35C and overlooked by a giant portrait of Ali Khamenei.
Authorities have said they expect more than 10 million people to take part in the ceremonies in the capital.
But strict security measures have been imposed and official media have warned of a risk of crowd crushes, with medical centres set up around the complex.
The Middle East war is on hold following a ceasefire and an initial accord struck with the US. But both Washington and Tehran have warned they are ready to resume military action, and vengeance has been a major theme at the funerals.
“The killers (of Khamenei) must face punishment,” a 38-year-old man who gave his surname as Miremadi told AFP as he attended the prayers.
“If our leaders are about to proceed with negotiations in this manner, our people will not agree with it,” he said.
“We’re here to show the world that we back our revolution and our leader, and we demand revenge for the blood of our loved ones,” added a 39-year-old woman who gave her surname as Bakand.
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Khamenei long pursued a course of confrontation with the West, and Tehran for years has provided support to anti-US and anti-Israel armed groups around the Middle East, including Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Delegations from both those groups met with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Saturday, Iranian state media reported, while representatives of Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Hamas ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad also attended the funeral ceremonies.
