Huge crowds expected at Iran leader's funeral procession

Huge crowds are expected to gather for the funeral procession of Iran's late supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in Tehran. Organizers are working to ensure the event proceeds smoothly and to avoid the tragic chaos that marred the 1989 funeral of his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which resulted in multiple deaths and injuries due to crowd surges.

Khamenei's body has been lying in state at Tehran's Grand Mosalla religious complex for two days. The procession is scheduled to last 10 to 12 hours, beginning early Monday morning. In 1989, Khomeini's funeral drew an estimated 10 million people, leading to stampedes that killed over 10 and injured more than 10,000. Authorities are mindful of this history and are implementing measures to manage the expected large turnout.

The funeral events serve not only to lay Khamenei to rest after his more than three-and-a-half decades of leadership but also as an opportunity for Iran's authorities to project resilience. This is particularly significant following five weeks of conflict with Israel and the United States. The procession will be followed by similar ceremonies in Qom, and in the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala, before Khamenei's burial in his hometown of Mashhad.

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the proud and invincible nation of Islamic Iran unanimously paid tribute to its "martyr".