ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Funeral processions for Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei (1939 - 2026) are taking place in Iraq’s holy shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala on Wednesday as part of a week long event in Iran and Iraq as tension once again rises in the Strait of Hormuz.
Tens of thousands of people in high temperatures gathered for the processions in Najaf carrying posters of Khamenei and his son Mojtaba and waving the flags of militia groups affiliated with Tehran.
President Masoud Pezeshkian flew to Iraq on Tuesday night and was received by Iraq's Prime Minister Ali Zaidi ahead of the ceremony in Najaf. The prominent Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was seen attending the event alongside other senior officials such as Ammar al-Hakim and the head of the National Wisdom Movement.
Khamenei was killed on February 28 on the first day of the joint US-Israeli aerial campaign launched against Iran. Khamenei’s burial was delayed for four months due to the war amid fears that officials attending the funeral could be targeted by Israel and the US.
Iraqi officials and senior politicians received the remains of Khamenei late Tuesday at Najaf international airport in the presence of Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian. Iraqi authorities have declared Wednesday a national public holiday.
The procession for Khamenei took place after Iran and the US reached a Memorandum of Understanding with the help of Qatari and Pakistani mediators in mid June. The Iranians appear to have received assurances from the Americans that the procession could take place without external threats.
President Trump has said recently that the Iranian side has seven days to bury Khamenei but they have to come back to the negotiating table after that and make a deal or he will finish what he started in late February.
Khamenei’s corpse will return to Iran on Wednesday for a final stage of the procession and will be taken to the eastern city of Mashhad for burial.
