Four months after he was killed on the outset of the US-Israeli conflict on Iran, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is being memorialized in a weeklong funeral spectacle stretching throughout 5 cities in two nations, with thousands and thousands of mourners anticipated to attend.
Despite a pricey conflict towards two of the world’s strongest militaries and a long time of crushing financial hardship, Tehran is sparing no expense to ship off Khamenei in a grand ceremony shrouded in spiritual symbolism that overlaps with the 250th US Independence Day celebrations.
Authorities say they’ve launched one of many largest logistical efforts within the Islamic Republic’s historical past, mobilizing authorities workers, universities, labor unions, firefighters, troopers, help staff and even spiritual “mourning groups” to manage the funeral and handle the thousands and thousands of “pilgrims” anticipated to journey to cities and holy websites throughout Iran and Iraq to bid the ayatollah farewell. Authorities in neighboring Iraq, the place Shiite Muslims are a majority, say thousands and thousands of mourners are anticipated to pay respects.
For greater than ten days, the overwhelming protection throughout Iranian media has been build up to this second, with tribute songs and documentaries on Khamenei’s life overtaking information of talks with the US that had beforehand dominated headlines. The scale of the spectacle is designed to ship a message to the world and to the Islamic Republic’s enemies: The regime not solely survived an existential conflict, however will stubbornly immortalize its slain chief as an emblem of its resilience.
“We must rise and raise the cry for the nation’s blood to the world so that the world knows that the honorable and noble nation of Iran does not remain silent in the face of oppression… and will not let go of the blood of its Imam (Khamenei),” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the highly effective parliamentary speaker who’s main Iran’s negotiations with the US, wrote in a message printed by state media Thursday.
“An epic feat that will show the greatness of a nation’s spirit to the world.”
It might also mark the second when Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei makes his public debut after remaining in hiding since his father and relations have been killed.
Not to be misplaced within the ceremony is the apparently deliberate symbolism of the chosen dates. Khamenei’s physique is scheduled to lie in state on the 250th American Independence Day, whereas one other key day within the procession coincides with a serious Shiite commemoration of a historic spiritual determine’s demise.
The whole spectacle unfolds in the course of the Islamic month of Muharram, a interval deeply related in Shiite Islam with mourning, betrayal and martyrdom – particularly the seventh century martyrdom of Imam Hussein, one of many Shia saints to whom Khamenei traces his lineage.
Khamenei, whose 37-year model of rule was outlined by cussed defiance and deep skepticism of the West, was killed on the primary day of the US-Israeli conflict, on February 28. Yet his funeral is being orchestrated as a victory parade throughout three Iranian cities and two holy websites in neighboring Iraq, displaying supporters that the cleric nonetheless hasn’t misplaced, even in demise.
The chief, whose assassination by the US and Israel has elevated his standing, presided over a number of the largest anti-regime protests in Iran’s historical past, brutally crushing demonstrators who typically chanted for his demise. In the method, he empowered the regime’s hardline base regardless of intense home and worldwide opposition.
“The assassination has made Khamenei far more powerful symbolically in death than he was in life,” Sina Toossi, a senior nonresident fellow on the Center of International Policy, advised NCS. “Khamenei is now being framed as a martyred religious authority, akin to revered Shia saints who were martyred, whose worldview was vindicated by the manner of his death.”
Iran’s solely earlier experiences with funerals on this scale have been these of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in 1989, and Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020. Both processions descended into chaos and resulted in lethal crowd crushes.
Khomeini’s physique, displayed in the exact same location the place his successor Khamenei is scheduled to lie in state for two days, had to be eliminated by helicopter after frenzied mourners tore on the coffin’s shrouds.
Safeguarding the chief’s physique, managing the thousands and thousands of mourners whereas internet hosting international dignitaries, and orchestrating main occasions throughout 5 cities in two nations is a colossal endeavor. It would require an unprecedented safety operation for a rustic that has solely simply emerged from inside unrest and conflict with the US.
The first occasion the place the coffin shall be displayed begins at 6 a.m. native time on Saturday, when Khamenei’s physique shall be positioned on an elevated stage erected inside Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Mosalla, an enormous mosque complicated. Firefighters have put in greater than 6,000 overhead water sprinklers throughout the sq. to maintain the crowds cool beneath the scorching July solar.
The capital’s worldwide and home airports shall be shut over the times in the course of the funeral and nationwide holidays have been declared throughout the cities which Khamenei’s physique will cross by. Tehran, a metropolis of 17 million, will bear the most important visitors operation in its historical past, banning personal automobiles close to the procession and opening up greater than 700 parking areas to liberate house for the thousands and thousands anticipated to concurrently descend on the town.
Fifty million items of bread shall be baked to feed the mourners, with 16 cell bakeries deployed within the capital, the Basij paramilitary volunteer pressure stated, in accordance to Iranian media.
Tehran and different main cities have been readied for incoming mourners, in accordance to the Red Crescent. Authorities have mobilized 2,500 ambulances, 21 helicopters, 100 drones, and 1000’s of rescue personnel, whereas greater than two dozen hospitals, 500,000 liters of IV fluids and 20,000 school rooms stand ready, Iranian media report.
The authorities has mounted a national campaign asking people to volunteer their properties to host mourners visiting Tehran, Mashhad and Qom, whereas mosques, sports activities halls, parks, and cultural facilities within the capital have additionally been ready to accommodate the thousands and thousands anticipated to attend the funeral ceremony.
On the third day, a funeral procession is anticipated to wind from the east of the capital to its western edge. Khamenei’s physique will then be taken for extra ceremonies within the holy metropolis of Qom earlier than being flown to Shiite holy websites in Iraq’s Najaf and Karbala.
It will then be transported to its last burial website on the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad – Khamenei’s birthplace.
Transporting the previous supreme chief’s physique to Iraq serves as an emblem of the Islamic Republic’s self-image as a borderless revolutionary pressure, a message it’s keen to amplify after years of projecting its energy within the area.
“His religious following extended into Iraq, Pakistan, Bahrain and other Shia communities, which is why planned processions in Najaf and Karbala are so significant,” stated Toossi. “They deepen the sense that this is not just an Iranian state funeral, but a transnational moment.”
Iranian officers have offered formidable estimates of attendance figures, starting from 4 million to 15 million mourners – which may make it the most important funeral in trendy historical past – and boasted that 14,000 journalists, together with 900 international reporters, will cowl the occasion.
State media retailers have spent the previous week itemizing anticipated international dignitaries. But except for Georgian President Mikheil Kavelashvili, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Russia’s safety council deputy Dmitry Medvedev, few world leaders are anticipated to attend. Iranian authorities say eight heads of state and 12 parliament audio system shall be current; Western officers have been excluded from the invitation record.
Iran’s vice chairman described the procession as some of the necessary occasions of the century, and its inside minister stated the purpose is to create the most important “farewell ceremony” in Iranian historical past. Ali Akbar Pourjamshidian, a Revolutionary Guards commander designated to lead the committee supervising the occasions, stated the funeral will search to challenge the Islamic Republic’s “power to the international community.”
A central query looming over the funeral is whether or not Mojtaba Khamenei, the brand new supreme chief and son of the slain ayatollah, will seem on the procession for his father, mom and spouse, who have been all killed in the identical US-Israeli strike.
Wounded in that assault, Mojtaba has remained in hiding because the conflict started in late February, speaking with his supporters solely by written statements, by no means displaying his face or utilizing his voice. Iranian officers have labored to challenge a picture of full restoration, claiming he’s directing Tehran’s negotiations with Washington.
When requested this week whether or not he would attend, the funeral’s organizer deflected, saying the “matter is not within our domain and the decision lies entirely with the Leader’s office.”
Motjaba’s look could be momentous, marking his first public emergence, and serving to set up his legitimacy. Non-attendance is probably going to gasoline doubts at house and overseas about his well-being, in addition to questions over who’s operating the nation. This week, the chief failed to seem for a non-public farewell ceremony for his spouse.
If he’s absent from the funeral, the Islamic Republic is probably going to spin this as a needed safety measure.
The Iranian army has warned towards any “miscalculation” in the course of the funeral processions and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated on Wednesday that Tehran would ship a right away and highly effective response to any risk towards its management after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stated that Mojtaba Khamenei was “marked for death.”
But regardless of the regime’s push to flip the funeral into an enormous show of energy and standard assist, some Iranians stay detached.
“I haven’t even been able to get petrol for two days because the queues are insane,” one Tehran resident advised NCS. “And let’s be real, most people aren’t going to the funeral, they’re going on holiday.”
“Half of them packed up and left yesterday,” she added.