Millions of people took part in a procession carrying the remains of Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the Iranian capital Tehran.
Khamenei and several members of his family, whose coffin is at the center of the procession, were killed in an airstrike on February 28 at the start of the war launched by the US and Israel on the Islamic republic.
The mass turnout was encouraged by Iran’s regime to show what it says is the country’s continued strength and unity as it negotiates a permanent end to the war.
Call to avenge Khamenei’s death
Iranian state television showed images taken by helicopter of crowds stretching along the eponymous street for kilometers (miles) from Tehran’s Azadi (Independence) Square.
The coffin of Khamenei, who was 86 at the time of his death, and those of his relatives killed in the airstrike were carried on a truck decorated with the decorative grating used around the imam’s shrine.
Many people along the truck and elsewhere along the procession route carried placards, signs and banners calling for the deaths of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Misty water was sprinkled on the participants of the procession to cool them down amid the high temperatures.
According to Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) General Hassan Hassanzadeh, who is overseeing the event, the procession was scheduled to pass through Tehran for 12 hours before reaching its destination at Mehrabad International Airport.
The official period of mourning for Khamenei began on Saturday and will end on Thursday with Khamenei’s burial at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, his birthplace.
Notable absence of new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei
Ali Khamenei’s son, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who was appointed supreme leader to succeed his father, has not appeared at any funeral ceremony so far.
He is believed to have gone into hiding after allegedly being badly injured in the airstrike that killed his father.
Israel has threatened to kill him as it has done to several prominent Iranian figures in the past.
Ali Khamenei’s three other sons made a rare public appearance at the funeral on Sunday.
Talks between the US and Iran on ending the war appear to be on hold until Ali Khamenei’s funeral is over.
Talks have so far focused on issues such as reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil and gas transportation route that was virtually closed by Iran during the conflict, and Tehran’s nuclear program, which the US says is aimed at developing nuclear weapons – which Iran denies.
Edited by: Kieran Burke
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