Khamenei lies in state in Tehran as Iran begins week of funeral ceremonies

Reuters ^ | July 3, 20264:20 AM CDT Updated 39 mins ago | Parisa Hafezi and Jana Choukeir

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Summary

• Khamenei will be buried on Thursday in Mashhad, near Imam Reza's tomb
• Ceremonies are scheduled in Qom on Tuesday and Iraq's Najaf and Kerbala on Wednesday
• Iraqi, Armenian and Pakistani officials arrived in Tehran for the funeral

DUBAI, July 3 (Reuters) - The body of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lay in state in a vast hall in Tehran on Friday as clerics, officials, foreign ​dignitaries and other mourners paid their respects to Iran's late Supreme Leader, slain by U.S. and Israeli bombs.

Iran is staging a week of mass funeral processions for Khamenei, whose 37-year reign was brought to ‌an end in February by the first airstrike of the war, in a show of public devotion to the Islamic Republic's theocratic state and revolutionary zeal.

Khamenei's body was expected to be taken to Qom, Najaf and Kerbala, the great Shi'ite centres of Iran and Iraq, before being laid to rest on Thursday in Mashhad, home to the country's holiest pilgrim shrine.

CRITICAL MOMENT FOR ISLAMIC REPUBLIC

His coffin was unveiled late on Thursday to a throng of sobbing supporters, swaying and beating their heads in time to a sung lament as flowers were thrown from the bier into ​the crowd. On Friday the coffin — and those of family members killed with him — was laid in state in the great prayer hall built to honour his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The funeral is taking place at ​a critical moment for Iran, where the clerical rulers backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are riding high from surviving what they saw as an existential war against their greatest ⁠and most powerful foes.

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TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
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[Nachoman]

A target rich environment, but I guess that just wouldn’t be Cricket.

[willk]

Make a martyr out of the brutal evil bastard why don’t you! WTF Reuters?

[Texas Eagle]

Get back to me when Tehran lies in state.

[jimtorr]

Iran has violated all kinds of islamic law regarding dead bodies. The stiff is supposed to be buried within 3 days, not 6 months.

I think it was weeks before they would even admit that he was dead.

[Old Retired Army Guy]

I see where Pakistan, the so called “mediator” will br attending the funeral. I thought they were a “Neutral Arbitrator” beween Iran and the U.S. What a joke.

[Orosius]

It probably took them this long to dig his miserable remains out from under the rubble and make them halfway presentable.

[Az Joe]

Probably a mannequin

[Veto!]

apparently he’s still dead, but you never know with these lying jerks.

[mass55th]

He was killed the end of February. Did it take them all these months to find all his pieces?

[HYPOCRACY]

Gay homo funeral for the gay homo leader of the gay homos.

[HYPOCRACY]

Iran is a gay homo theocracy afraid of being outed to the closet homos of the rest of the muzzie closeted homos.

[dayglored]

> He was killed the end of February. Did it take them all these months to find all his pieces?

Pretty gruesome thought, eh? It wouldn't take long for his random bits to become funky -- if they're lucky they might dry out, but they might just rot -- and some poor sucker has to gather them up and identify them?

Icky dead cleric bits. Not my cup of tea whatsoever.

[Buck-Toothed Knuckle Dragger]

Such an event should be commemorated with a Bunker Buster or two.

[Buck-Toothed Knuckle Dragger]

Reuters is run by the same leftist zombies running most other media.