“It is important to note that this is the real Islamic Republic of Iran,” one mourner told NBC News. “The popularity of the people is the real power.”

Khamenei's flag-draped coffin sat at Tehran's Grand Mosalla alongside family members killed in the Israeli airstrike that came in the first moments of the war on Feb. 28.

The Tehran hardliners will use every propaganda trick in the book to convey their message to the world outside Iran

Dressed in black and draped in the red, white and green flags of the Islamic Republic of Iran, mourners held up posters and A4 printed sheets with pictures of Khamenei and his son…