WorldThe body of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lay in state in a vast hall in Tehran on Friday as clerics, officials, foreign dignitaries and other mourners paid their respects to Iran's late Supreme Leader, killed in a U.S.-Israeli airstrike earlier this year.Khamenei will be buried on Thursday in Mashhad, ​near Imam Reza's tombThomson Reuters · Posted: Jul 03, 2026 11:02 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 6 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.A large poster depicting the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is displayed in the courtyard at Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque in Tehran on July 3. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)The body of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lay in state in a vast hall in Tehran on Friday as clerics, officials, foreign dignitaries and other mourners paid their respects to Iran's late Supreme Leader, killed in a U.S.-Israeli airstrike earlier this year.Iran is staging a week of ‌mass funeral processions for Khamenei, whose 37-year reign was brought to an end in February by the first airstrike of the war, in a show of public devotion to the Islamic Republic's theocratic state and revolutionary zeal.Khamenei's body was expected to be taken to Qom, Najaf and Kerbala, the great Shi'ite centres of Iran and Iraq, before being laid to rest on Thursday in Mashhad, home to the country's holiest pilgrim shrine.A picture of Zahra Mohammadi Golpayegani, granddaughter of Khamenei, is displayed near the coffins of Khamenei and his family members on the day international delegates participate in a farewell ceremony in Tehran on July 3. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)His coffin was unveiled late on Thursday to a throng of sobbing supporters, swaying and beating their heads in time to a sung lament as flowers were ​thrown from the bier into the crowd. On Friday, the coffin — and those of family members killed with him — was ​laid in state in the great prayer hall built to honour his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.Critical moment for Islamic RepublicThe funeral is taking place at a critical moment for Iran, where the clerical rulers backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are riding high from surviving what they saw as an existential war against their greatest and most powerful foes.Authorities aim to mobilize millions of ​people for the big processions over the coming days, offering transport, food and lodging to buoy the numbers.Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei's father-in-law, Gholamali Haddad Adel, attends the ceremony. (Majid Asgaripour/WANA/Reuters)But nearly five decades after the 1979 revolution, and for all the official ⁠proclamations of national unity in the run-up to Khamenei's funeral, ⁠the Islamic Republic has rarely been so internally fractured.Support for the clerical leadership is paper thin, analysts say, and the ‌new Supreme Leader, Khamenei's son Mojtaba Khamenei, has not been seen in any new image since being wounded in the strike that killed his father.Years of crippling sanctions have paralyzed the economy as accelerating bouts of mass nationwide protests have been put down by security forces with increasing force — culminating in the killing of thousands of demonstrators in January.Those deep problems have been brushed aside this week, with the authorities mounting a display of state power and mass support.U.S. to permit Iranian oil sales, easing decades-old sanctions, as peace talks continueVance says talks with Iranian officials set 'good foundation' for a deal to end warTehran streets were tightly controlled, with military and police vehicles lining the major roads and police and members of the black-shirted volunteer ⁠Basij paramilitary force patrolling on motorbikes. Iran warned the United States and Israel against any attacks during the funeral.After the coffins arrived on Friday, they were laid in the prayer hall on a white, stepped dais before a high, intricately tiled, arched recess, flanked by national and black mourning flags.A black turban, worn by clerics claiming descent from Islam's Prophet Mohammed, lay on the coffin on a folded checkered scarf, a symbol ‌in Iran of militant revolutionary ideals and solidarity with Palestinians.Afghanistan's Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi attends the ceremony. (Majid Asgaripour/WANA/Reuters)Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, Chinese National People's Congress deputy head He Wei, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Iraqi President Nizar Amedi were among the foreign leaders and officials attending.Families of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and senior commander Imad Mughniyeh, close Lebanese allies of Iran killed in Israeli strikes, attended the ceremony.Iran's own political leaders — the president, parliament speaker, foreign minister and others — filed in to weep and pray on Friday morning. A group of generals stood saluting in front of the coffin. Among them was the new Revolutionary Guards head Ahmad Vahidi, having ​not appeared in public since his appointment for fear of assassination.Sobbing crowdsIn Iran's theocratic system, Khamenei was not only head of state and leader of a revolutionary movement but the representative on Earth for Shi'ite Islam's 12th imam, who disappeared in the ninth century.His death in an ⁠enemy attack plays into a powerful Shi'ite tradition of martyrdom and mourning, in which processions of flagellants beat their chests or backs.That potent symbolism has been evident in the black funeral flags hanging over city streets since his ⁠death referencing the seventh-century martyrdom of Shi'ism's third imam, Hossein.Motorists drive past a billboard bearing a picture of Iran's slain supreme leader ahead of his funeral in Tehran. (AFP/Getty Images)In central Tehran overnight, a crowd stood sobbing and chanting, led by a Basij member, as others handed out posters of the late Khamenei."God willing, only by ⁠avenging his blood, ⁠demanding justice for it and ensuring that our leader's blood is not left unavenged, can ​this sorrow of the people be somewhat alleviated," said Mobina Razaaghi, an 18-year-old student from Isfahan, attending the funeral events with classmates.Killed alongside Khamenei, and displayed in coffins next to his, were his daughter, son-in-law and baby granddaughter, as well ​as the wife of his son Mojtaba.Burial postponed due to warBurials are meant to be conducted within a day of death in Islam, but because of the risks of holding a big funeral during the war, it was postponed until after last month's interim truce deal was agreed.Hotels are offering 50 per cent discounts, schools, mosques and sports halls have been prepared to house mourners, and bus and rail networks are being diverted to serve the main events.Banners are suspended above a street in Tehran ahead of the funeral ceremonies. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)After what authorities are billing as a massive procession in central Tehran on Monday, the remains will be taken to the seminary city of Qom, the center of Iran's Shi'ite hierarchy, for ceremonies on Tuesday.Ceremonies will then be held in Iraq's shrine cities of Najaf and Kerbala on Wednesday, with prominent attendees from Iran's regional network of Shi'ite proxies.Khamenei will be ⁠buried on Thursday, after another procession, in Mashhad near the tomb ‌of the Imam Reza, a figure of great devotion in Iran.