Mass grief in Iran at Khamenei funeral after US, Israel war killing

Tens of thousands of Iranians gathered in Tehran on Saturday to mourn Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the opening airstrikes of the US-Israeli war on Iran. Mourners, dressed in black and holding Iranian flags, paid tribute to Khamenei and his family at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla.

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Let us wail!

This funeral is the centerpiece of a week-long national mourning period for Khamenei, who died in February. His coffin, displayed under glass outdoors, was accompanied by those of his daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, and infant granddaughter. His son and successor, Mojtaba, has not been seen publicly since the attack that reportedly injured him.

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Everyone here has come to avenge the blood of their supreme leader. As our leader has said, we have a blood feud with the United States. Our relations with the United States will never be good.

The funeral takes place at a critical juncture for Iran. The nation's clerical rulers, supported by the military, have emerged from the conflict with their system intact. Iran's authorities describe the war as a victory, anticipating significant economic benefits from a ceasefire agreement with Washington. Axios reported that U.S. President Donald Trump paused peace talks for a week to accommodate the funeral events, noting that he was surprised by public displays of grief, suggesting they might be insincere.

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But we are not going to do that because then we would have nobody to negotiate with.

Iran's embassy in Armenia responded to Trump's remarks on X, stating, "You don’t understand these things because you have neither civilization, nor history, nor honor." Beyond the public displays of solidarity, assessing the depth of public loyalty across Iran's 90 million population remains challenging, especially given widespread anti-government protests that occurred weeks before the war.

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You don’t understand these things because you have neither civilization, nor history, nor honor.