Millions join funeral procession for Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei | Iran
A crowd of millions gathered on Monday for the funeral of Iran’s assassinated religious leader Ali Khamenei. The scale and depth of the march, however designed, represents an extraordinary transformation for a country that just seven months ago was gripped by street protests in which thousands of people were killed by government security forces. Many will say this meeting is a monument to the misunderstood war that Donald Trump launched against Iran in February.
Following the two-day funeral ceremony of the religious leader and his family members at the Grand Masalla mosque in Tehran, the crowd moved from east to west through Tehran, from Revolution Square to Azadi Square. Mourners wore black clothing and carried flags bearing the slogan “We Will Rise”; others held up the Iranian flag and pictures of Khamenei.
Tehran’s metro was packed as people tried to join the march. They chanted the slogan: “Today is mourning, the day of mourning is today. Martyr Khamenei is in the presence of Allah today.”
At Sunday’s funeral, “Kill Trump” was written across the stage by mourners who expressed their desire for revenge and personal pain throughout the service.
Khamenei was killed by Israeli bombs in February in an attempt to destabilize and ultimately overthrow the government.
The funeral procession was expected to last 10 to 12 hours, depending on the number of participants. Since only a limited number of people could enter the massive Masalla mosque at a time, it was always likely to attract the largest crowds.
On Sunday, the entire Iranian leadership, exhausted by successive Israeli assassinations, turned out for morning prayers, except for the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late supreme leader and now his appointed successor.
Iranian officials said Khamenei’s absence was not due to injuries he sustained in Israel’s attack on the presidential building, but due to concerns about his safety. But, His three grieving siblings also attended.
With a successful organization by state authorities and a volunteer civilian army that fed and housed the mourners, no one was killed, unlike previous state-linked funerals that quickly descended into chaos, including the funeral of the previous religious leader.
The Iranian president praised the crowd’s actions and expressed hope that the images emerging from Iran would force the West to reflect on its determination to change Iran. Masoud Pezeshkian said: “If I want to say something, only a few Persian speakers understand it, but the behavior and existence of the people is understood by the whole world.”
Pezeshkian, who rejected Trump’s claim that the pain seen at the funeral was “fake tears”, said: “This greatness, these tears flowing from the eyes of girls, boys and children, is not something that can be created by order. Tears are born from the pain and sorrow that rises inside a person, and the world sees this truth.”
More than 300 foreign journalists, as well as foreign correspondents living in Iran, were granted rare visas to report on the funeral and demonstration of national unity.
Reformist Pezeshkian, who was elected two years ago and emphasized reaching a compromise among Iran’s political elite, said: “I do not accept the farewell interpretation. This is an agreement to continue on the road. This is not actually a farewell, but an agreement to continue on the path.”
“By entering this war, the enemy disrupted the geography of the region, but in fact it strengthened the unity and solidarity among Muslims, and even made the people of the world aware of human rights claims.”
The president accused Israel of committing “all the crimes committed in the region with the support of the United States and European countries.”
