Iran prepares for days-long funeral for late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in war

Iran pre­pared Fri­day for the days-long fu­ner­al of the late Supreme Leader Ay­a­tol­lah Ali Khamenei, with ban­ners across Tehran urg­ing the pub­lic to rise up in sup­port of the Is­lam­ic Re­pub­lic af­ter the dev­as­tat­ing war that killed the 86-year-old cler­ic.

The coun­try’s theoc­ra­cy plans to see mil­lions flood the streets of the cap­i­tal be­gin­ning Sat­ur­day in scenes rem­i­nis­cent to the bur­ial of the late Supreme Leader Ay­a­tol­lah Ruhol­lah Khome­i­ni in 1989.

That could pro­vide a boost for Iran’s gov­ern­ment, par­tic­u­lar­ly as it tries to lever­age its hold on the Strait of Hor­muz in ne­go­ti­a­tions with the Unit­ed States over a per­ma­nent end to the war, and as con­cern still lingers that Is­rael could at­tack yet again.

De­spite that, a pow­er­ful gen­er­al who leads Iran’s para­mil­i­tary Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Guard emerged pub­licly for the first time in months for the fu­ner­al. Oth­er top gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials like­ly will be on hand along­side for­eign dig­ni­taries as well in show of strength of Iran.

“As long as these peo­ple, who are cho­sen (by God), are on the field, we will def­i­nite­ly con­tin­ue the same ‘no to hu­mil­i­a­tion’ pol­i­cy that was found­ed by the Is­lam­ic Re­pub­lic,” said Mo­ham­mad Hos­sein Reza­ei, a vol­un­teer prepar­ing for the fu­ner­al Fri­day.

“We will con­tin­ue our pol­i­cy of pur­su­ing in­de­pen­dence, and de­ci­sions will be made in­side the coun­try, and the peo­ple will de­cide their own fate,” he said.

Cas­kets dis­played in Tehran

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 dead be­ing ho­n­oured in­clude a son-in-law, his el­dest daugh­ter, a 14-month-old grand­daugh­ter and the wife of Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ay­a­tol­lah Mo­jta­ba Khamenei, the son of the pre­vi­ous leader who re­mains in hid­ing af­ter re­port­ed­ly be­ing wound­ed in the at­tack.

Re­li­gious lead­ers and for­eign dig­ni­taries walked up to Khamenei’s cas­ket as a mil­i­tary band played or a man sang prayers.

Video pub­lished by Iran­ian state me­dia showed an ear­li­er mourn­ing cer­e­mo­ny Thurs­day night for Khamenei. The black-clad mourn­ers, whom state me­dia iden­ti­fied as com­ing from fam­i­lies of those who lost loved ones in the 12-day war in 2025 and the re­cent Iran war, threw scarves and oth­er items for at­ten­dants to brush against the cof­fin, a com­mon prac­tice in Iran seen as a bless­ing.

Lat­er, state me­dia showed im­ages of Khamenei’s cas­ket draped by a red flag with white cal­lig­ra­phy read­ing “Ya Hus­sein,” a Shi­ite ex­pres­sion in re­mem­brance of the 7th-cen­tu­ry mar­tyr­dom of the Prophet Muham­mad’s grand­son. It had been fly­ing over the Imam Hus­sein gold­en-domed shrine in Kar­bala, Iraq. The flag al­so tra­di­tion­al­ly sym­bol­izes both the spilled blood of some­one un­just­ly killed and a call for vengeance.

Top gen­er­al ap­pears for first time in months

Pho­tos pub­lished on­line by Iran­ian state me­dia showed Gen. Ah­mad Vahi­di at­tend­ing a meet­ing Thurs­day about the fu­ner­al of Khamenei, then sit­ting along­side his cas­ket as Iran’s theoc­ra­cy held a small­er ser­vice for him Thurs­day night near the supreme leader’s for­mer home in down­town Tehran.

Vahi­di has be­come a ma­jor play­er in for­mu­lat­ing Iran’s tough stance in ne­go­ti­at­ing a pos­si­ble per­ma­nent end to the war with the Unit­ed States, ex­perts say. He hadn’t been seen pub­licly since Feb. 8, weeks be­fore the Iran war be­gan. Is­rael killed top lead­ers in Iran’s mil­i­tary and gov­ern­ment dur­ing the war and has threat­ened the life of Ay­a­tol­lah Mo­jta­ba Khamenei as well. Vahi­di is be­lieved to be part of a small clique in di­rect con­tact with the younger Khamenei.

It re­mains un­clear whether Khamenei will ap­pear at his fa­ther’s fu­ner­al. His fa­ther ap­peared in 1989 at Khome­i­ni’s fu­ner­al, weep­ing vis­i­bly, as he be­gan his jour­ney to lead Iran for decades with an iron fist while con­fronting the West.

Is­rael re­peat­ed­ly has threat­ened to kill Khamenei, some­thing that drew a warn­ing from Iran’s joint mil­i­tary com­mand Thurs­day.

“We warn the en­e­mies of a strong Iran, es­pe­cial­ly the Unit­ed States, the Is­raeli regime and their re­gion­al and ex­tra-re­gion­al ac­com­plices, to avoid any mis­cal­cu­la­tion and to con­sid­er the harsh and re­gret-in­duc­ing re­spons­es that the sons of the Iran­ian na­tion in the armed forces will give to any threat or ag­gres­sion against our beloved coun­try,” the mil­i­tary com­mand said.

Fu­ner­al to go on for days

Be­gin­ning Sat­ur­day, Iran will hold the days-long fu­ner­al for Khamenei and his body will be trans­port­ed to cities in both Iran and neigh­bour­ing Iraq. Au­thor­i­ties plan to shut down streets, air­space and dai­ly life in Tehran as mourn­ers com­mem­o­rate the life of Khamenei.

In Tehran, im­ages of the late Khamenei’s fist could be seen in ban­ners and in a gi­ant stat­ue in Tehran’s En­ghe­lab Square. In his first mes­sage to the na­tion, read by a state tele­vi­sion an­chor, Mo­jta­ba Khamenei said he saw his fa­ther’s body af­ter his death with raised, clenched fist.

The ban­ners read in Ara­bic, Eng­lish and Far­si: “We must rise.” —TEHRAN, Iran (AP)

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Sto­ry by NASS­ER KARI­MI and JON GAM­BRELL | As­so­ci­at­ed Press

Jon Gam­brell re­port­ed from Dubai, Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates. As­so­ci­at­ed Press writer Amir Vah­dat in Tehran, Iran, con­tributed to this re­port.