Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a joint Israeli-American strike, will be buried in the city of Mashhad, the Fars news agency reported on Tuesday. Iran declared a 40-day period of mourning for the loss. Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city and a popular pilgrimage site, is home to a population of 3.5 to 5.4 million.
The second of eight children in a religious family, Ali Khamenei’s father was a middle-ranking cleric from the Shiite branch of Islam, the dominant sect in Iran.
Why was Mashhad chosen for the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?
The longest-serving head of state in the Middle East, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ruled Iran for more than three decades. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will be laid to rest in the city of his birth. This is the same city where his father was buried in the shrine of Imam Reza.
The capital of the Razavi Khorasan province, Mashhad, is of strategic and religious importance as a key place of Shia worship. Located in the northeast of the country, it is believed that the eighth Shia Imam, Ali al-Rida, was buried here. The Shrine of Imam Reza is an important pilgrimage site that attracts almost 30 million visitors every year.
Mashhad served as the capital of Afsharid Iran during the Afsharid dynasty. Given its religious, spiritual and geographical significance and its history with the Khamenei family, it is understandable why Mashhad was chosen for the burial of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
A “grand farewell ceremony” will be held in Tehran before the funeral, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on its Telegram account. According to media reports, the funeral is likely to take place on Friday.
Who will be the next supreme leader of Iran?
Iran’s Assembly of Experts has decided that the second son of slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mojtab Hosseini Khamenei, will take over as the country’s new supreme leader, Iran International reports. According to the report, the decision was allegedly taken under pressure from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Mojtaba, who has never held public office and is not a high-ranking cleric, is believed to have considerable influence behind the scenes. He served in the Iranian Armed Forces during the Iran-Iraq War and is known for his close ties to the IRGC.
One of the surviving members of Khamenei’s family, Mojtaba, lost several members of his family in the US-Israeli airstrikes, including his father, mother, sister, sister-in-law and brother-in-law.
An interim leadership council has been running the country since the killing of Ali Khamenei, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday. It consists of the Iranian president, the head of the judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, and a member of the Guardian Council, Ayatollah Alireza Arafí.
