By Jaime León
Tehran, Jul 3 (EFE).- Hundreds of senior Iranian and foreign officials paid tribute on Friday to the assassinated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who ruled Iran for over 36 years, on the first day of the funeral procession, which will be the largest in the history of the Islamic Republic.
The six-day funeral procession will take place in five cities across Iran and Iraq and comes four months after the United States and Israel assassinated Khamenei on Feb. 28, the first day of the war.
Shortly after midnight, amid the sobs of his followers and a shower of flower petals, the coffin of the cleric, now called the “martyr leader,” was unveiled. It was then carried to the Mosala Mosque in Tehran.
The coffin was draped in an Iranian flag and adorned with a black turban, a symbol of the descendants of Muhammad, as well as a Palestinian keffiyeh.
