Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the current Supreme Leader, will not participate in his father’s funeral prayer and burial ceremony due to security concerns. This information was confirmed by Ayatollah Hakim Elahi, the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader in India.
In an interview with the Indian media outlet India Today on Thursday (July 2), he stated that Mojtaba Khamenei will not be present at the funeral due to ongoing security threats from Israel.
He added that recently, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued stern threats targeting Iran’s Supreme Leader. In response, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi warned that any future threats of this nature would be answered ‘firmly and powerfully’.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on February 28, the first day of a joint air attack by the United States and Israel. His state funeral prayer and burial ceremony had been postponed several times due to the prevailing security situation.
The Iranian government announced that the funeral prayer and burial will be formally organized next week. Extensive preparations are underway nationwide for this occasion.
Authorities anticipate that approximately two crore (20 million) people in the capital Tehran and three and a half crore (35 million) nationwide might participate in the event. Additionally, representatives from over 90 countries and nearly 14,000 journalists are expected to be present.
If this estimate materializes, it is believed it will surpass the record of approximately 1 crore 2 lakh (10.2 million) people who attended Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s funeral in 1989.
Iran’s state media, Pars Today, reported that the central committee formed in Khamenei’s memory has announced a six-day mourning program in Iran and Iraq. The farewell ceremony will take place on July 4 and 5 at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Mosalla, with the funeral prayer scheduled for the first day.
Following this, a major mourning procession will be held in Tehran on July 6. On July 8, the body will be taken to Iraq, where funeral prayers and mourning processions will take place in Najaf and Karbala. The next day, he will be buried at the shrine of Hazrat Imam Reza (A.S.) in Mashhad, Iran.