Tehran Throngs Mourn Khamenei as Successor Stays Hidden
Tens of thousands filled central Tehran for the biggest day of Ayatollah Khamenei’s funeral rites, as his coffin was driven through crowds who stoned a billboard of President Trump and burned American and British flags beneath banners hailing the “avengers of Khamenei”. Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei again did not appear. Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz warned: “Any Iranian leader who will again try to pursue plans to destroy Israel will be killed as well.”
The procession delivered the regime its crowd images, but the absence at its centre has now spanned the entire funeral week: a supreme leader unseen through his own father’s rites, while Israel’s defence minister publicly threatens his life — a threat that doubles as an explanation for the invisibility. The US-Iran talks remain paused until after Thursday’s burial in Mashhad, with the body travelling via Qom and Iraq’s shrine cities first. The burned Union flag is a reminder of where Britain sits in Tehran’s taxonomy of enemies as the truce diplomacy resumes. Watch Thursday’s burial for Mojtaba’s first — or continued non- — appearance.