Mourners wave flags under water sprinklers during a public farewell ceremony to pay their respects to late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla, in Tehran, Iran. Photo: Reuters
Crowds of Iranians marched through the streets of Tehran on Monday in a funeral procession for slain leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the biggest day yet in a week of massive memorial ceremonies demonstrating the grip of surviving clerical leaders.
Drone footage on state television showed many tens of thousands of people crammed into a boulevard in central Tehran.
The caskets of the slain leader and four of his family members were driven in a large truck through the streets, while fire hoses sprayed water from above to keep the marchers cool.
As they passed under a bridge, mourners hurled stones at a billboard hung from above showing US President Donald Trump with a bullet aimed at his head.
“The US killed our father,” it read. “We won’t let you go!”
As demonstrators set fire to US and British flags, women in black chadors held aloft red placards with the English words “KILL TRUMP” in black letters.
Others held aloft posters with the faces of Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth or Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, each depicted in the crosshairs of a gunsight, with the words “There will be blood”.
The larger crowds waved Iranian flags and red banners with a slogan calling out to the “avengers of Khamenei”, adapting a phrase at the heart of Shi’ite Islam since the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad was killed in battle in the seventh century.
Read: Millions turn out as Tehran bids farewell to an era
After a day lying in state indoors for senior Iranian leaders and foreign officials to visit, Khamenei’s coffin was displayed outdoors on Saturday under glass, along with those of his daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and 14-month-old granddaughter.
On Sunday, tens of thousands more mourners, including soldiers, seminary students and ordinary men and women filed into the Mosalla to pay their respects to Khamenei and his family, waving flags emblazoned with promises of revenge against America and Israel.
Others prayed in unison at the complex named after Iran’s first supreme leader Khomeini, whom Khamenei succeeded in 1989.
The farewell ceremony was extended by about an hour to 10pm (1830 GMT) due to the high number of people taking part, state media reported.
No sightings of Mojtaba
There has still been no public sighting or image released of Mojtaba, said to have been injured in the attack that killed his father and the other family members on February 28, when Israel and the US bombed Iranian targets at the start of the war.
Mojtaba Khamenei’s face was disfigured, and he suffered a significant injury to one or both legs, people close to his inner circle told Reuters.
One disappointed mourner said she had hoped to see the new supreme leader during the funeral events.
“Until the last moment, before the prayer began, I kept telling those around me that I hoped (Mojtaba Khamenei) himself would come. That was our only wish,” a young woman wearing makeup and sunglasses told the semi-official Tasnim news agency in an interview.
A ceasefire has suspended the four-month-old war under an agreement with Washington that Iran’s authorities say will ultimately bring huge economic benefits, in line with what they describe as a victory over a superpower.
During the war, more than 3,000 people were killed, most of whom were Iranian and Lebanese civilians. Military bases and major civilian infrastructure projects were destroyed, causing billions of dollars in damage.
Read more: Trump says US gave Iran ‘a week off’ for funeral of Iran’ late supreme leader amid stalled talks
But Iran successfully struck US bases in the region, inflicted pain on the Gulf Arab countries that host them, and asserted its control of the Strait of Hormuz, causing a spike in global energy prices, which US President Donald Trump claims led him to push faster for peace.
The interim deal reached last month includes the unfreezing of billions of dollars in Iranian assets held abroad, and waivers from financial sanctions that had brought Iran’s economy to its knees.
Trump told the Axios news website that peace talks had been paused for a week for the events surrounding the funeral.
On Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf prayed behind the coffins. Masoud Khamenei was seen crying and wiping his tears with a keffiyeh – the chequered scarf that is a symbol of solidarity with Palestinians and Iranian ideals – as an imam recited funeral prayers.
Iranians flock to central Tehran
Crowds of Iranians, many weeping and some beating their chests, have thronged the Mosalla, including overnight. The Iranian metro railway network said it had clocked 7 million trips from late on Saturday to Sunday morning as people flocked to the centre.
After what authorities are billing as a massive procession in central Tehran on Monday, the remains will be taken to the seminary city of Qom, the centre of Iran’s Shi’ite hierarchy, for ceremonies on Tuesday.
His body will be moved by land in a special vehicle, Iran’s state media cited an official as saying.
From there, the body will be flown to Iraq for ceremonies in the Shi’ite holy shrine cities of Najaf and Kerbala on Wednesday. It will return to Iran on Thursday for another procession in Mashhad, to be buried near the tomb of another of the medieval Shi’ite imams.
Authorities plan to mobilise millions of people for big processions over the coming days, offering transport, food and lodging.
