By Parisa Hafezi, Ahmed Elimam and Eman Abouhassira
DUBAI, July 4 (Reuters) – Crowds gathered at a massive prayer venue in Tehran on Saturday as the week‑long funeral for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei commenced, featuring the national anthem, religious eulogies and recitations from the Qur’an.
The funeral processions mark the end of Khamenei’s 37‑year rule, which concluded in February after the first airstrike of the conflict initiated by the United States and Israel, underscoring the Islamic Republic’s theocratic authority and revolutionary fervor.
Television footage showed his coffin, draped in the Iranian flag and topped with his black turban, placed on a large black platform alongside the coffins of four slain family members, echoing the design of the Kaaba, the central shrine in Mecca.
The expansive courtyard of the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla was packed with mourners, many waving Iranian flags and displaying photographs of the deceased leader.
‘Death to America’ chants resonated throughout Tehran’s Mosalla on the day of the farewell to ‘Mr. Martyr,’ according to the state broadcaster Seda va Sima.
State media video posts also captured mourners shouting, ‘Our slogan is one word: Revenge, revenge,’ and ‘We will kill, we will kill he who killed our Imam.’
Water was sprayed from rooftops to cool attendees amid the summer heat, and Khamenei’s coffin will remain in the Mosalla until Sunday evening.
His remains are expected to be transported to Qom, Najaf and Karbala — major Shia holy sites in Iran and Iraq — before being interred on Thursday at Mashhad, home to the nation’s foremost pilgrimage shrine.
The coffin was revealed late on Thursday to a crowd of weeping supporters who swayed and repeatedly beat their heads in rhythm with a lament, while flowers were scattered from the bier into the audience; on Friday, the coffin was laid in state within the grand prayer hall built to honour his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Authorities announced plans to mobilise millions of participants for forthcoming processions, providing transport, meals and lodging to accommodate the large turnout.
The new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has not appeared in any recent images since being wounded in the strike that killed his father.
