Hundreds of thousands of mourners flooded the streets of Tehran on Monday as Iran transformed the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei into a display of defiance against the United States and Israel. Crowds were heard chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” and openly calling for revenge, NBC News reported.
Khamenei’s coffin, along with those of family members killed in the February 28th U.S.-Israeli airstrike, moved slowly through the capital as mourners waved Iranian flags, displayed anti-American banners and even hanged effigies of U.S. President Donald Trump.
“We are not here to say goodbye to him. We are here for revenge. And we will take revenge,” mourner Fatima Hassan told NBC News.
The funeral procession is expected to continue until Thursday. Authorities shut roads, airspace and much of daily life across the country to accommodate the state-organised mourning.
NBC News reported that Khamenei’s coffin will travel from Tehran to the holy city of Qom before continuing to Iraq’s Shiite holy sites and finally to Mashhad, where he will be buried at the Imam Reza shrine.
The funeral has also frozen diplomatic efforts. Negotiations between Washington and Tehran over a permanent end to the recent war, Iran’s nuclear programme and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz remain suspended until after Khamenei’s burial.
