TEHRAN: A vast sea of people on Monday filled the streets of Tehran for the funeral procession of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, with authorities looking to mobilise millions to show the resilience of the Islamic republic after the war with the US and Israel.
Ordinary Iranians loyal to the Islamic republic joined top officials for the procession, which saw a truck carrying the bodies of Khamenei and four other family members killed in a February 28 US-Israeli strike inch its way to Azadi Square in the west of the city.
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AFP images showed huge numbers stretching along major boulevards in the Iranian capital and state television said millions of people turned out, in an event comparable to the giant funeral of Khamenei’s predecessor Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.
“If I am to compare this ceremony to that one, I can say they are not different at all,” said Gholamreza Khanbabaei, 58, attending the procession.
“We want revenge. It must be done. Because later, if it’s not done, it will get worse,” said Khanbabaei.
But on the third day of a marathon six-day sequence of funeral ceremonies, there was still no sign of Khamenei’s successor and son Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since his appointment a week after his father’s death.
Clad in black, people threw flower petals onto the coffins carried by the truck, including the tiny casket of Khamenei’s granddaughter, aged only 14 months when she was killed, according to state media.
Another truck was adorned with images of top Iranian and pro-Tehran officials killed in recent years, including the head of the external operations arm of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, the Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US strike on Iraq in 2020.
Mourners marched through the streets waving the flags of Iran and the Tehran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, as well as red flags symbolising revenge. In eastern Tehran an effigy of US President Donald Trump was burned.
“We will avenge the blood of the martyrs and our martyred imam from these criminals,” said a man, 63, who gave his surname as Kazemi.
In sweltering heat nudging 40C (104F), trucks sprayed mourners with water to cool them along a procession route that covered around 20 kilometres (12 miles).
“The leadership of the martyr taught everyone that Iran’s greatest asset is its people and their unity,” President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was among the mourners, wrote on X, adding that “today we will continue the path of Iran’s honour, progress, and glory”.
The government is eager to tout the mass mobilisation after the war but also after mass protests took place in January, which rights groups say were quelled by a crackdown that killed thousands of people.
Other figures attending shown by state media included Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and the current head of the Quds Force, Esmail Qaani.
State media also showed images of Iran’s president from 2005-2013 Mahmood Ahmadinejad taking part. Ahmadinejad had fallen out with Khamenei in the latter part of his presidency and had not been seen since the war began.
But as on previous days, there was still no sign of Mojtaba Khamenei, fuelling speculation over his whereabouts and condition. Iranian officials have said he was wounded in an airstrike and it remains uncertain if he will appear in the ceremonies.
Mojtaba Khamenei earlier reappointed Ejei as judiciary chief, according to his official social media.
Authorities are hoping to avoid a repeat of the chaos that marred the 1989 funeral of Khomeini, which drew an estimated 10 million people, according to state media, but where crowd surges killed more than 10 people and injured over 10,000.
Jafar Miadfar, the head of emergency services, told state news agency IRNA: “To date, no fatalities have been recorded during this ceremony, and more than 34,000 participants have received medical treatment and emergency medical services.”
Soleimani’s funeral mustered some seven million people, according to authorities, but dozens were killed in a stampede in his hometown of Kerman.
Monday’s procession will be followed by similar events in the clerical hub of Qom on Tuesday and in Iraq’s holy cities of Najaf and Karbala on Wednesday, culminating in Khamenei’s burial in his hometown of Mashhad in northeastern Iran on Thursday.
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