The funeral procession for Iran’s late supreme leader Ali Khamenei began in Tehran on Monday, state television reported, as authorities prepared for crowds that could rival those that turned out for his predecessor nearly four decades ago.The ceremonies offer Iran an opportunity to project resilience after five weeks of war with the United States and Israel, while attention remains focused on Khamenei’s successor, his son Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since taking power.For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.After lying in state for two days at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla religious complex, the body of Khamenei -- who was killed on the first day of the Middle East war on February 28 -- began its journey through the capital accompanied by massive crowds of mourners, state broadcaster IRIB reported.Mourners gathered in Imam Hussein Square in eastern Tehran.Thousands had filled the Grand Mosalla on Sunday to pay their respects to Khamenei and his four family members, all killed on February 28 in Israeli airstrikes based on US intelligence.Monday’s procession will be followed by similar events in the clerical hub of Qom on Tuesday and in Iraq’s holy cities of Najaf and Karbala on Wednesday, culminating in Khamenei’s burial in his hometown of Mashhad in northeastern Iran on Thursday.Three of Ali Khamenei’s sons made a rare public appearance at the funeral on Sunday, further highlighting the absence of Mojtaba Khamenei, who was named supreme leader shortly after his father’s killing but has yet to appear in public.Officials have said he was wounded in the airstrikes but the severity of his injuries remains unclear.The new commander of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Ahmad Vahidi, whose predecessor was killed on February 28, appeared at the funerals for a second time on Sunday, this time in the open air, after he went unseen throughout the war.Esmail Qaani, the head of IRGC’s Quds Force -- responsible for its foreign operations -- also made a rare appearance.While Iranian authorities have been keen to present a united front, none of President Masoud Pezeshkian’s surviving predecessors, who had tensions in their relationship with Khamenei, have so far been seen at the ceremonies.The government is also eager to tout the mass mobilization in support of the authorities after mass protests in January that rights groups say were quelled by a crackdown that killed thousands of people.The Middle East war is on hold following a ceasefire and an initial accord struck with the US. Both Washington and Tehran have warned they are ready to resume military action, and vengeance has been a major theme at the funerals.Khamenei long pursued a course of confrontation with the West, and Tehran for years has provided support to anti-US and anti-Israel armed groups around the Middle East, including Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, who both sent delegations to the ceremonies.With AFP Read more: Three sons of Iran’s slain leader Khamenei appear at funeral, his successor still absent