Tehran:
Calls for the killing of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reverberated through Tehran’s packed Grand Mosalla prayer complex as Iran’s top political and military leadership reappeared in public for the funeral of assassinated former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei. After over four months of delay due to the chaos of war in the Middle East, Iran has organised a week of mass funeral processions for Khamenei and four other members of his family who were killed on the first day of the US and Israeli war on February 28.
The funeral prayers created a political spectacle that melded grief with calls for revenge. Crowds of hundreds of thousands stayed in the mosque overnight or arrived well before dawn to participate in prayer reading at 8 am. Holding Iranian tricolour and red flags symbolising vengeance, along with photographs of the 86-year-old supreme leader, people chanted, “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” as they called for revenge.
‘Kill Trump’ Calls
Posters and graffiti at the Grand Mosalla even called for the assassination of Trump and Netanyahu, with similar slogans echoing the crowd.
“From now on the shroud is our garment. I swear by your blood; Trump’s murder is our responsibility,” Mohammad Rasouli, a poet who emceed the event before the prayers, said to the crowd over loudspeakers.
“Why is the most bastard man in the world still alive? The world is no longer a good place for Trump. Why should we not kill the man who killed our imam? It would be a disgrace if we did not,” he added as the crowd cheered.
“I came here to shout and seek revenge,” said Gholamreza Sabooni, a 29-year-old man who works in a grocery store. “They killed our imam. We should kill their leader, Trump.”
Later, Iran’s ambassador to Armenia, Khalil Shirgholami, took to his X account and wrote, “You can kill people, but you can’t kill ideals. You killed Ayatollah Khamenei, but in reality you broke a bottle of perfume, the fragrance of which has now spread everywhere. You will never understand this because you have no civilisation, no history, no honour.”
“People are shouting two slogans in farewell to their leader: resistance against enemies and revenge for the blood of the martyred leader of Iran,” said Mohammed Bagher Zolghadr, the secretary of the National Security Council.
Photo Credit: AFP
The United Front
Iran’s top officials and brothers of the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, emerged into public view on Sunday amid the Israeli threat to attend Ali Khamenei’s funeral prayers. Khamenei’s other sons, Masoud, Meysam, and Mostafa, and Revolutionary Guard head General Ahmad Vahidi, who had not been seen since the war, were photographed for the first time since the war.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf –who has led the negotiations with the US –and Esmail Qaani, who leads the elite Quds Force of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also attended.
Their appearance projected unity, defiance, and confidence in their safety as Iran pushes back on US demands in negotiations to permanently end the war.
Missing from the action was Mojtaba Khamenei, who is believed to be in hiding after reportedly being wounded in the airstrike that killed his father. At the height of the war, before an April ceasefire, Israel had targeted top leaders, in at least one case likely using their public appearance to fix their position. It has also threatened to kill the younger Khamenei.
The Funeral
Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani, a 97-year-old Shiite cleric, led the prayers at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla for the late Khamenei and several other members of his family, including his daughter-in-law Zahra Haddad Adel and his 14-month-old granddaughter Zahra Mohammadi Golpaygani. The contrast in size of the granddaughter’s coffin to other coffins was one of the most poignant sights at the ceremony.
Khamenei’s body will be transported to cities in Iran and neighbouring Iraq, with authorities planning to drive his casket and others through the streets of Tehran on Monday. Authorities have shut down streets, airspace, and daily life for the mourning, which will end on Thursday as he is buried at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Khamenei’s place of birth.
Authorities offered no attendance count for the event Saturday and Sunday. Other cities across Iran also held mourning ceremonies.
The funeral was in part a show of unity as Iran demands a measure of control over the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for global energy that it shut down during the war. The U.S. has rejected those demands, and the sides are divided on other key issues, including Iran’s nuclear program and the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The US assisted 70 transits of the Strait of Hormuz over the past 72 hours, including 18 on Saturday, a multinational maritime body overseen by the US Navy said on Sunday. It called traffic steady along routes near Oman and Iran but still below prewar levels. The threat level remained “substantial” and mine clearance and surveying work continued.
