Millions Gather in Tehran for Khamenei’s State Funeral

Millions of black-clad mourners have flooded the streets of Tehran for the first day of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s state funeral, a historic six-day procession that will stretch across Iran and Iraq. The event comes more than four months after Iran’s supreme leader of 36 years was killed in joint US and Israeli strikes, and unfolds against a backdrop of profound uncertainty over his successor and the durability of a fragile ceasefire with Washington.

The Scale of the Funeral

Khamenei’s body is lying in state at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla, where authorities expect 15 to 20 million people to attend ceremonies across multiple cities over the coming days, according to BBC News. The funeral is expected to be the largest in history as a proportion of the country’s population, with much of central Tehran locked down over the weekend.

The funeral route is meticulously choreographed. The body will remain at the Grand Mosalla until Monday, then travel to Qom on Tuesday for prayers at the Jamkaran shrine. On Wednesday, it will be taken to Najaf and Karbala in Iraq before returning to Iran for burial on Thursday at the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad, Khamenei’s birthplace and Iran’s most important pilgrimage site. Commemorative events will continue across the country for 40 days, with observances planned through the first anniversary of his burial.

Representatives from more than 100 countries are expected in Tehran, Al Jazeera reported. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and the Afghan Taliban’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi were among the high-profile attendees. Delegations from Iraq, Armenia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Oman have also arrived.

The Succession Question

The most significant unanswered question hanging over the proceedings is the status of Khamenei’s successor: his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, aged 56. The new supreme leader has not been seen in public since assuming the role, and Iranian media have reported that he is not expected to attend his father’s funeral ceremonies, according to Al Jazeera.

Mojtaba Khamenei, described in WikiLeaks cables as “the power behind the robes,” has never held government office or given public speeches, as BBC News detailed. A mid-ranking cleric, his selection has raised concerns because the Islamic Republic’s ideology explicitly opposes hereditary succession. His absence from the funeral has fueled speculation about his health, security concerns — Israel’s defense minister has called him “an unequivocal target for elimination” — or internal political maneuvering within the regime.

Mourning and Division

The funeral has drawn competing narratives. Thousands of mourners have chanted slogans against the US and called for revenge. “We came to the funeral because we promised the supreme leader we would stand by him to the very end,” Reza, a 37-year-old professor, told AFP at the Grand Mosalla. “For a long time, we shouted that we would sacrifice our lives for the leader, but it was he who sacrificed himself for us.”

Another mourner, Arash Rahimi, 40, told Reuters: “Everyone here has come to avenge the blood of their supreme leader. As our leader has said, we have a blood feud with the United States. Our relations with the United States will never be good.”

But opposition voices have sharply contested the regime’s narrative. Reza Pahlavi, the exiled former crown prince of Iran, called Khamenei a “deceased dictator” and accused the regime of staging a “propaganda spectacle” using the Iranian people’s wealth. “Iran is mourning more than 40,000 sons and daughters slaughtered on January 8 and 9 by Khamenei, Ghalibaf, and their machinery of repression,” Pahlavi said on X, referring to protests over economic grievances that were violently repressed earlier this year.

A Fragile Ceasefire

The funeral takes place under the shadow of a preliminary ceasefire between Iran and the US, struck in June after months of devastating regional conflict. US President Donald Trump acknowledged the mourning period on Friday, saying Iran’s government was “dying to settle” a peace deal. “We gave them a week off for a funeral because we’re nice,” Trump told a crowd at Mount Rushmore on the eve of US Independence Day celebrations, as BBC News reported.

The strikes that killed Khamenei on February 28 quickly spiraled into a wider regional war. Recently released satellite imagery, analyzed by BBC Verify, revealed extensive damage to Iran’s ballistic missile infrastructure, nuclear sites, and naval bases at locations including Bushehr and Esfahan.

What Lies Ahead

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has declared that the nation will seek justice against the US and Israel, calling it an “enduring cause.” Meanwhile, the new leadership faces rising public discontent over inflation and economic hardship, and the perception that the republic is turning into a hereditary system could further deepen public anger.

Ali Akbar Dareini, a researcher at the Center for Strategic Studies in Tehran, told Al Jazeera that Mojtaba Khamenei’s top priority is “to preserve Iran’s political independence and territorial integrity” and that he plans to “bring about national solidarity at home and also fighting corruption.” But whether the new supreme leader will appear in public during the funeral — and what message that appearance or absence will send — remains the defining question of this historic moment.

The coming weeks will test whether Iran’s leadership can navigate the dual challenges of internal legitimacy and external pressure, as the world watches the Islamic Republic at one of its most consequential crossroads in decades.