Vast Crowds Mourn Khamenei as His Successor Stays Unseen
Tens of thousands filed through Tehran’s Grand Mosalla mosque to view Ayatollah Khamenei’s coffin, displayed under glass beside his daughter, son-in-law and 14-month-old granddaughter, all killed in February’s opening strikes. Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, wounded in the same attack, made no appearance on the funeral’s first day. President Trump said that with Iran’s leadership gathered in one place Washington could strike with “one shot” — “but we are not going to do that because then we would have nobody to negotiate with”.
The choreography continues through the week — lying in state until Sunday evening, a mass procession through Tehran on Monday, Qom on Tuesday, Najaf and Kerbala on Wednesday, burial near Mashhad on Thursday — and the regime is staging it as proof the state survived the war intact, months after protests were violently crushed. Mojtaba’s absence from his own father’s funeral is the detail that matters: four months into his succession there is still no new image of him, feeding questions about his condition and his grip. The peace talks, and their asset-unfreezing provisions, resume only after the burial. Watch Monday’s procession numbers.