Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's body arrived in the holy city of Qom on July 6, 2026, carried by helicopter and broadcast on state television channel IRIB. Iran is conducting a six-day funeral ceremony across Tehran, Qom, Iraq, and Mashhad, with a procession set for Tuesday, July 7, and burial at the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad on Thursday.

Khamenei was killed on February 28 in a joint US-Israeli airstrike that also killed four family members, including his 14-month-old granddaughter, according to Iranian state media. A separate airstrike in March killed Ali Larijani, then-head of the supreme national security council. The funeral ceremonies rival the largest state mourning Iran has organized since the 1989 death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Islamic Republic's founder, according to state television and Press TV.

The Tehran Ceremonies

Millions of people filled the streets of Tehran across three successive days. A truck carrying Khamenei's coffin moved through central Tehran to Azadi Square. Emergency services chief Jafar Miadfar told state agency IRNA that more than 34,000 participants received medical treatment during the events, though no deaths were reported.

The attendance of senior Iranian officials carried diplomatic weight. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, and Quds Force head Esmail Qaani were present. Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who became head of the supreme national security council after Larijani's death, made his first confirmed public appearance. Former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended as well — his first public appearance since the conflict began. This mattered because Ahmadinejad and Khamenei had developed a significant personal rift during the latter years of Ahmadinejad's 2005–2013 presidency. President Masoud Pezeshkian attended and posted on X that Iran would "continue the path of Iran's honour, progress and glory." Pakistan's Interior Minister traveled to Tehran for the ceremonies, according to IRNA, a gesture reflecting the diplomatic significance Iran sought to convey despite ongoing conflict.

The Appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei and His Public Absence

One significant fact stands out: Mojtaba Khamenei, who was appointed Supreme Leader approximately one week after his father's assassination, has not appeared in public since before that appointment. He is absent from all proceedings.

Mohammad Eslami, a research fellow at Tehran University, told Al Jazeera that Mojtaba's absence reflects the security risks of an ongoing war and the fragility of ceasefire negotiations between Iran and the United States and Israel. This reasoning is logical but tells only part of the story.

A new Supreme Leader who has not yet built the public legitimacy his father accumulated over more than three decades faces compounded risk. The physical risk is real — his father was killed in a precision strike. But there is also political vulnerability. His appointment bypassed the customary deliberative process within the Assembly of Experts, the body that normally chooses Iran's Supreme Leader. His continued absence during a defining moment of national mourning will itself carry meaning. Domestic hardliners will assess whether he retains authority. Foreign intelligence services will track whether the regime remains internally coherent. And Iranian citizens will form impressions of a leader whose relationship to the Islamic Republic has always been contested.

Processions Across the Shia World

The funeral's Iraq component adds a regional dimension. Processions were organized in Najaf and Karbala — the two most sacred cities in Shia Islam — with Khamenei's body traveling a 6-kilometer route in Najaf and a 5.8-kilometer route in Karbala. Press TV reported that 150 ambulances were stationed for those processions.

The inclusion of these Iraqi shrine cities serves a strategic purpose. Tehran is framing Khamenei's death not simply as a national loss but as an event of consequence within the broader Shia religious world. This framing supports messages of solidarity and helps sustain the networks of influence Iran has cultivated in Iraq over decades. Burial at Imam Reza's shrine in Mashhad, the holiest site in Shia Iran, completes this narrative. Khomeini was buried in Tehran; Khamenei's interment in Mashhad positions him within the sacred geography of the faith in a way that carries weight for the clerical establishment and the millions of pilgrims who visit annually.

What Comes Next

The immediate questions remain unresolved: the state of the ceasefire talks between Iran and its adversaries, the composition of the new leadership structure around Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's military posture as the armed conflict potentially gives way to negotiation. The funeral provides a temporary ritual frame. When that frame closes on Thursday, the pressures it temporarily suspends will reassert themselves.