Starting July 3, millions of mourners are expected to gather for seven days of funeral ceremonies and processions for Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, with religious rites planned in cities across Iran and Iraq.
The burial, initially scheduled for March, was postponed as the US and Israeli regime's war with Iran dragged on. Khamenei, 86, was killed alongside several family members in a joint US-Israeli airstrike on his compound on February 28, the first day of the war.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led Iran from 1989, following the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who had spearheaded the Islamic revolution a decade earlier and became the country's first supreme leader. While Khomeini was the ideological force behind the revolution, Khamenei shaped the military and paramilitary apparatus.
The funeral will also be the first major state ceremony under his successor and son, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has remained out of public view since the US-Israel war began four months ago.
A seven-day funeral program will take place across Iran and Iraq, beginning in Tehran on July 3 when global leaders, senior officials, religious figures and scholars from around the world will pay their respects. On July 4 and 5, public funeral ceremonies will begin in Tehran, with the coffin lying in state at the Grand Mosalla.
On July 6 and 7, the funeral processions will move through other parts of Tehran before continuing to Qom, about 120 km south of the capital. Qom is Iran's foremost center of Shia Islamic scholarship and one of the holiest cities in the country.
Iranian and Iraqi officials say an official reception will be held at Najaf International Airport on July 8, followed by public processions in the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala. The Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf is one of the holiest sites for Shias.
The body will then return to Iran for the final burial ceremony, scheduled for July 9 at the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad. Mashhad is Iran's holiest city and holds personal significance for Khamenei, who was born there in 1939. Burial near one of Shia Islam's most revered figures is considered a great honor.
Source: www.aljazeera.com