TEHRAN: Iran has entered a week of mass mourning from July 3, 2026, as funeral processions began across Tehran, Qom, and Mashhad for Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, the country’s second Supreme Leader, who embraced martyrom on February 28 in Israeli and US strikes at the outset of their war with Iran.
In a solemn and historic ceremony that begun at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla on Friday, heads of the three branches of the Iranian government along with presidents, parliamentary speakers, special envoys, scholars, religious intellectuals, and thinkers from diverse backgrounds from across the globe paid their respects to Shaheed Ayatollah Khamenei.
Iranian officials and their families, representatives of religious minorities, families of martyrs of the resistance front and Arab tribal leaders also joined the solemn tribute.
Khamenei led the Islamic Republic for 37 of its 47 years, making him one of the most powerful religious and political figures of the modern Middle East.
The Pakistani Delegation Attends Funeral
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif led a high-level delegation from Pakistan that included Deputy Prime Minister & Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Chief of Army Staff & Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, Interior Minister Syed Mohsin Naqvi, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and other senior government officials.
On this solemn occasion, the Prime Minister recalled the lasting contributions of the late Supreme Leader for Islam. He paid rich tribute to the late Supreme Leader, who guided the Iranian nation for decades, with remarkable wisdom and sagacity.
The Prime Minister expressed full solidarity with Supreme Leader, His Eminence Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, President Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian and the brotherly people of Iran in this moment of national grief and prayed to Allah Almighty for forgiveness of the departed leader.
After attending the ceremony, the Prime Minister, who had arrived in Tehran earlier today, departed for Istanbul for his official visit to Turkiye.
Parliamentary delegation led by Chairman Senate Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani and Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Parliamentarians and Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah also attended the funeral along with the Prime Minister.
Born in Mashhad in 1939 into a clerical family, Khamenei studied theology under senior scholars and became an early and active participant in the movement against the Shah, for which he was imprisoned and exiled multiple times before the 1979 revolution. He served as President of Iran from 1981 to 1989 before being elevated to Supreme Leader following the death of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — a selection that was, at the time, seen by some clerics as unconventional given his relatively modest religious credentials compared to more senior ayatollahs.
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Over nearly four decades in the role, Khamenei consolidated authority over Iran’s judiciary, security apparatus, and Revolutionary Guard Corps, while positioning himself as the final word on the country’s foreign policy, nuclear program, and relations with Israel and the West.