Four Months Later, Iran Buries Khamenei. Will Khamenei’s Successor Dare To Show His Face?

Ceremonies begin tomorrow in Tehran, move to Qom, include processions in Najaf and Karbala, and are supposed to end with burial in Mashhad on 9 July.

Iranian state media has been promoting the event under the slogan “flowers and vengeance” - a combination that apparently makes perfect sense in Tehran right now.

While America celebrates its independence with fireworks, Iran has chosen to throw what may be the largest state-organised funeral party in modern history.

Officials are promising between 15 and 35 million participants. Provincial participants have been offered free buses, free kebab, and the clear understanding that failing to attend could be viewed as a lack of revolutionary enthusiasm.

More than thirty countries are sending delegations. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will attend in person. China is represented by a senior legislator, Russia by former President Dmitry Medvedev, and India by a minister and a retired general after Prime Minister Modi discovered he had something more important to do that week. Turkey is also expected to send its Vice President.

The United States, Israel and most of Europe “will not have the honour” of attending.

Under Islamic tradition, burial is normally carried out as quickly as possible. Iranian authorities, however, appear to have discovered an important exception for cases where the deceased remains politically useful for one final mass mobilisation campaign.

All eyes are now on whether Mojtaba Khamenei will defy security advice and show his face at his father’s funeral. The new Supreme Leader has not been seen in public since the strike that killed Ali Khamenei in February. Security sources have reportedly warned him against attending, with Israel’s Defence Minister already declaring him “marked for death”. Whether he risks appearing at the biggest funeral in Iran’s history remains the biggest unanswered question of the week.

Iranian planners will also be hoping to avoid the deadly crowd disasters that marked the funerals of Khomeini in 1989 and Qassem Soleimani in 2020. Nothing would spoil a carefully choreographed display of national unity quite like the Islamic Republic accidentally adding fresh martyrs to the programme.