TEHRAN — Iran's senior political and military leaders appeared publicly on Sunday for funeral prayers for former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, marking one of the highest-profile public gatherings of top officials since the war that killed him earlier this year.Hundreds of thousands of mourners gathered at Tehran's Grand Mosalla, where Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani led prayers for Khamenei and members of his family who were also killed in the Feb. 28 U.S.-Israeli strikes.
Iranian officials and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s sons pray over his coffin and of his family members at a mass prayer for late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a farewell ceremony ahead of his funeral at the grand Mosallah mosque in Tehran. — EPA
Among those attending were Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani, and Khamenei's sons Masoud, Meysam and Mostafa.Notably absent was Iran's new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since reportedly being wounded in the strike that killed his father.The funeral took place amid heightened anti-U.S. and anti-Israel sentiment, with mourners carrying banners condemning the United States and Israel and calling for retaliation.During the ceremony, poet Mohammad Rasouli, who hosted the event, led chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" and made remarks targeting U.S. President Donald Trump, drawing loud applause from the crowd.Some mourners also called for revenge against Trump, whom Iranian hardliners continue to blame for longstanding tensions following the 2020 U.S. strike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
