Iran has begun three days of public mourning and funeral processions for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s former Supreme Leader, more than four months after he was killed in US and Israeli bombings.
The former Ayatollah’s body will lie in state at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla beginning Friday before being buried in his homeland of Mashhad next Thursday.
Iranian authorities predicted that 12 to 20 million people would attend the “funeral of the century.”
It comes as Iran and the United States are maintaining a shaky ceasefire after striking a tentative agreement to end their fight in June.
Six days of ceremonies will start at 06:00 (03:30 BST) on Saturday at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Mosalla, which visitors can visit to pay their respects until Sunday afternoon.
There will be an official funeral ceremony in Tehran on Saturday, which the Tehran-based Mohammad Rasulullah Corps is leading.
The group’s commander Hassan Hassanzadeh said Khamenei’s coffin would be displayed on an elevated platform, with crowd flows designed to allow visitors to enter and leave within 15 to 20 minutes.
Khamenei’s body will be kept in the Grand Mosalla for three days, with the remains of family members killed in US and Israeli strikes in February.
Authorities in Tehran have ordered that governmental and commercial offices close from Saturday to Monday, while traffic restrictions will prevent private vehicles from accessing most of the city center, according to AFP.
The airspace over Tehran will be partially closed beginning Friday and totally closed on Monday.
On Tuesday, the focus will shift to Qom, just south of Tehran, when a senior Shia cleric will lead funeral prayers at Jamkaran, one of Iran’s most visible and iconic religious sites.
Khamenei’s body will then travel to Najaf in Iraq on Wednesday. Following a procession at the shrine of Imam Ali, Shia Islam’s first imam, ceremonies will continue in Karbala before the body returns to Iran.
Iranian officials say the Iraq events follow requests from Iraqi groups, with some analysts seeing them as representative of Khamenei’s influence across the Shia Muslim world and Iran’s religious and political ties across the region.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Baghdad to coordinate the arrangements, saying the funeral had “symbolic importance.”
On Thursday, Khamenei will be buried in Mashhad, his birthplace, at the Imam Reza Shrine, the shrine of Shia Islam’s eighth imam and Iran’s most important pilgrimage site, which draws millions of tourists each year.
Representatives from several countries are expected to attend the events, including Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Ceremonies will take place around the country for 40 days, with commemoration events scheduled till the first anniversary of Khamenei’s interment.
Khamenei was succeeded by his son, Mojtaba, who has not been seen in public since becoming supreme leader.
Key questions around the ceremony center on whether Mojtaba will attend the funeral.
Last week, secretary of the organizing committee, Ali Akbar Pourjamshidian, said any decision on Mojtaba’s attendance would be announced by the offices of the armed forces commander-in-chief and the supreme leader.
Questions also remain about who will lead the funeral prayer, as in Shia tradition the role carries religious and political significance.
