Iran leaders pay last respects to Khamenei as mourners gather
Published: 02:07 PM,Jul 03,2026 | EDITED : 06:07 PM,Jul 03,2026
Tehran: Sebastien Ricci Top Iranian officials on Friday paid their final respects to the country's slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei at the start of a week of funeral ceremonies, with allies and mourners converging on Tehran where his body is lying in state.
Authorities expect public mourning and grand processions to attract millions before Khamenei's burial next week, four months after he was killed aged 86 at his compound in the opening US-Israeli salvo of the Middle East war.
AFP images showed mourners carrying his coffin aloft at the vast Grand Mosalla religious complex in the Iranian capital, with the casket draped in the colours of the Islamic republic that he led for more than three decades.
State TV broadcast footage of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian paying his respects at Khamenei's coffin on Friday afternoon, alongside parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
Ahmad Vahidi, head of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the military, also made his first appearance since the start of the war in February.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country has been mediating between Iran and the US to end the Middle East war, Russian ex-president Dmitry Medvedev and the foreign minister of Afghanistan's Taliban government also paid their respects.
Delegations from Palestinian militant group Hamas and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah joined the mourning, a day before a public ceremony was set to begin.
Representatives from around 30 countries are expected to attend the funeral, with other allies including China and Iran's neighbours in the Caucasus region saying they would be sending representatives.
The city was preparing to take in huge numbers of visitors for the grand display of patriotism and devotion.
Ezzat Shoai, a 61-year-old teacher, told AFP that her neighbourhood had 'prepared our houses to welcome those who come from outside the capital'.
'God willing... we will go together to say goodbye to our dear leader.'