Iran begins a week of funeral ceremonies on Friday for former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a joint US–Israeli strike in February. The ceremonies will move from Tehran to Qom, then to Najaf in Iraq, before concluding with burial in his hometown of Mashhad next Thursday. Iranian authorities are preparing for an estimated 10 million mourners across the four cities.The foreign guest list is taking shape along sharply geopolitical lines. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has confirmed he will attend, making him the highest-profile foreign leader to do so. Tajik President Emomali Rahmon is also expected at head-of-state level. Iran’s deputy interior minister has confirmed that European Union leaders “will not have the honour” of attending, citing their failure to condemn the strike that killed Khamenei. The United States, United Kingdom, Israel, Canada, and Australia were not invited.Russia, China, and India — all personally invited by President Masoud Pezeshkian — have chosen to downgrade. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will not attend in person; Beijing is sending a senior member of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, and Moscow is expected to dispatch a Security Council official. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declined, citing a pre-scheduled Indonesia visit; New Delhi will be represented by Minister of State Pabitra Margherita and Bihar Governor Arif Mohammad Khan. Congress leader and former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid is also said to be attending. Senior delegations are expected from Iraq, Qatar, Lebanon, Syria, Venezuela, Belarus, North Korea, and several Central Asian states. Representatives of Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthis, and Iraqi Shia militias are also expected.Iranian officials have not confirmed Mojtaba Khamenei’s attendance. Since the February strike that killed his father and wounded him, Mojtaba has not been seen or photographed in public. The regime insists the younger Khamenei is alive and in hiding for his own safety, but Western intelligence officials are casting serious doubt on that claim, with concerns that Tehran may be concealing a death or complete incapacitation. His absence — or appearance — at the funeral will be the most closely watched moment of the week.The funeral also arrives amid continued regime threats of retaliation. General Ali Abdollahi, commander of the central Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters, issued a fresh warning on Thursday. “Our enemies must think very carefully about the response of our armed forces to any threat or aggression directed against our territory,” he said. “We warn our enemies, especially the US and the Zionist entity, against making any miscalculations.“An analyst cited by Fox News said that “For a regime that claims to lead a front stretching from Beirut to Sanaa, a regional turnout at its founder-successor’s funeral is the isolation showing through the pageantry.“For Washington, it is a useful readout: the war left Tehran’s axis smaller and more regional than the regime advertises,” he added.
