Calls for revenge as senior Iranian officials appear in public for supreme leader’s funeral
The crowd of hundreds of thousands chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”, calling for revenge for the Feb. 28 attack that triggered the war by killing the 86-year-old religious leader and other senior officials. Some conservatives have called for the assassination of US President Donald Trump.
Iran’s new religious leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has not yet attended the funeral ceremonies that have been going on for several days. He is believed to have gone into hiding after reportedly being injured in the airstrike that killed his father.
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At the height of the war, before the ceasefire in April, Israel had targeted senior leaders in at least one case, possibly to gain public exposure and stabilize their positions. He also threatened to kill the younger Khamenei.
Meanwhile, the United States continues negotiations with Iran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz and roll back its controversial nuclear program.
Ziba Naderi, a 42-year-old nurse who attended the funeral on Sunday, said Iran should follow Mojtaba Khamenei’s orders. “I heard the call for revenge, but our leader must tell us what we should do,” he said. “And we must listen to him.” As the crowd grows, senior officials emerge
97-year-old Shiite cleric Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani led the prayer at Tehran’s Grand Musalla for family members killed in the attack.
With him were Khamenei’s other sons, Massoud, Meysam and Mustafa, who have not been seen since the war. Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Ahmed Vahidi, photographed Thursday for the first time since the war, could be seen among the crowd by Associated Press journalists, flanked by plainclothes security forces and wearing a black baseball cap.
Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian, Parliament Speaker Mohammed Bagher Galibaf, who leads negotiations with the United States, and Esmail Qaani, who leads the elite Quds Force of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, also attended the meeting.
The crowd had increased since the previous day. Mourners dressed in black carried banners and flags commemorating Khamenei.
Some mention Trump by name as mourners call for revenge
Posters and graffiti in the Grand Mosalla called for the killing of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Why is the world’s biggest bastard still alive?” Narrating the event before the prayer, poet Mohammad Rasouli said to the crowd over loudspeakers, referring to Trump. “The world is no longer a good place,” he added of Trump, as the crowd cheered.
“I came here to shout and take revenge,” said Gholamreza Sabooni, 29, who works at the grocery store. “They killed our imam, we must kill their leader Trump.”
The US President was giving a speech simultaneously around the world in Washington DC on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the founding of America.
“We’ve had tremendous success,” Trump said about the US military. “You look at Venezuela, you look at Iran. We destroyed that place, we destroyed their army.”
U.S. federal officials have been tracking Iranian threats against Trump and other administration officials for years. This stems from Trump ordering the killing of General Qassem Soleimani, who led the Quds Force, in 2020. Iran has repeatedly denied planning to kill Trump, but hard-line propaganda images have long suggested that Trump is in Tehran’s crosshairs.
Trump, meanwhile, has vowed to destroy Iran’s civilization during the war, among other threats.
Funeral postponed talks with the USA
Khamenei’s body will be transported to cities in Iran and neighboring Iraq, and authorities plan to parade his coffin and others through the streets of Tehran on Monday. Authorities closed streets, airspace and daily life in observance of the mourning, which will end Thursday with Khamenei’s burial at the Imam Reza shrine in his hometown of Mashhad.
Authorities did not provide information about the number of participants in the event to be held on Saturday and Sunday. Mourning ceremonies were also held in other cities of Iran.
It appears that talks on a permanent end to the war will be postponed until after the funeral.
The funeral was partly a show of unity and defiance, as Iran claims some control over the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for global energy that it closed during the war. The United States has rejected those demands, and the parties remain divided on other key issues, including the conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran’s nuclear program.
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The United States has assisted 70 passages in the Strait of Hormuz in the past 72 hours, including 18 on Saturday, a multinational maritime agency overseen by the U.S. Navy said Sunday. It was stated that traffic on routes near Oman and Iran was stable but still below pre-war levels. The threat level remained at “significant” and demining and survey efforts continued.
Mourning Mohammad Reza Sharifi said, “Our foreign policy should not be shaped in a way that allows the blood of our martyred leader to be stained and allow other countries to have the luxury of doing such things without a serious response from our government and diplomatic system.” he said.
