Mourners pay respects as Iran’s slain leader Ali Khamenei laid in state 

A seven-day series of state funeral ceremonies for former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has begun in Iran, with foreign delegations from more than 100 countries arriving to attend.

Khamenei’s body lay in state in a vast hall in Tehran on Friday as scholars, officials, foreign dignitaries and other mourners paid their respects after his 37-year rule.

His coffin was unveiled late on Thursday to a throng of sobbing supporters. On Friday, the coffin – and those of family members killed with him – was laid in state in Tehran’s Grand Mosalla, the great prayer hall built to honour his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Khamenei, 86, was killed alongside several relatives – including his daughter, son-in-law and three-year-old granddaughter – in an air strike on February 28, the first day of the joint US-Israel war on Iran. His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, formally succeeded him as supreme leader weeks later.

The burial was scheduled for March, but the subsequent months-long conflict delayed the funeral rites until this week.

Khamenei’s coffin was draped in a flag that previously flew over the Shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala, according to a post on his official X account. The red banner, featuring white lettering, was described by the Iranian government in a separate social media post as a symbol of resistance, sacrifice, and devotion.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian paid respects to Khamenei on Friday, state media reported. Foreign officials, including Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Iraqi President Nizar Amidi, and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, were also expected.

“Today was allocated for special dignitaries, from around 100 countries who have been invited to attend this ceremony, including presidents of states, prime ministers, speakers of parliament, and other dignitaries,” said Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from Tehran.

He noted that an “invitation has not been extended to European countries who have supported the military campaign by Israel and the United States against Iran”.

The arrival of foreign delegations followed a private viewing held inside the complex the previous evening.

“Victims’ families, especially those victims’ families of those who were killed during the war, and also those who were killed in the 12-day war in June last year, attended a farewell ceremony last night,” Abdelwahed reported.

Security across the capital has been raised to maximum alert.

Among those overseeing the arrangements is General Ahmad Vahidi, the recently appointed commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who on Friday made his first public appearance since February 8, sitting beside Khamenei’s coffin.

Vahidi, who assumed the role after his predecessor Mohammad Pakpour was killed in US-Israeli strikes on the first day of the war, has not been seen in public for months. He was previously head of the elite Quds Force.

Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the funerals in Tehran, Major-General Amir Hatami, the commander-in-chief of Iran’s armed forces, pledged revenge against the US and Israel for killing the former supreme leader.

“With a firmer resolve we declare to the enemies of the Iranian nation – America and the criminal Zionist regime – that we will avenge the blood of the martyred leader [Khamenei],” Hatami said on Friday.

Public viewing is scheduled to begin on Saturday morning, with authorities preparing to manage crowds amid a regional heatwave.

The funeral procession will continue through Tehran and Qom before moving briefly into Iraq on July 8. Final burial ceremonies are scheduled for July 9 at the Imam Ali Reza Shrine in Mashhad.