4th day funeral procession for Khamenei in Tehran
Shafaq News- Tehran (Updated at 12:25)
Iran began the main funeral proces:sion for former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the capital Tehran on Monday, more than four months after he was killed in a joint US-Israeli airstrike.
According to state broadcaster Press TV and the Tasnim News Agency, the cortege set out from the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla, a large prayer complex in central Tehran, at 6:00 a.m. local time. Brigadier General Hassan Hassanzadeh of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran's elite military force and the officer overseeing the ceremony, said organizers were prepared for a 10-12-hour ceremony.
نمایی از پل کالج در خیابان انقلاب اسلامی؛ مراسم تشییع پیکر مطهر «آقای شهید ایران» و شهدای خانواده ایشان. ۱۴۰۵/۴/۱۵#باید_برخاست pic.twitter.com/wo0kU0Cp25
— KhameneiNews (@khameneinews) July 6, 2026
The flag-draped coffins of Khamenei —who led Iran as Supreme Leader, its highest political and religious authority, from 1989 until his death— and several family members were carried on a vehicle decorated to resemble the metal lattice that surrounds a Shiite shrine.
خودروی حامل پیکر امام مجاهد شهید و شهدای خانواده ایشان در میان خیل عظیم جمعیت تهران pic.twitter.com/YTIX7QqSXV
— خبرگزاری ایسنا (@isna_farsi) July 6, 2026
Iranian officials estimated that between 15 and 20 million people would take part in ceremonies over the course of the week and described Monday's procession as the largest gathering of the commemoration. Residents of provinces across Iran converged on the capital through the fourteen access routes into Tehran, which Iranian media said saw unprecedented congestion as arrivals moved to join the city's own residents.
Black-clad mourners filled the streets and squares along the route from before dawn, many carrying portraits of the slain leader. Among the crowds, mourners held a banner written in Persian and English reading "We will kill Trump," a reference to US President Donald Trump, whose administration Iran holds responsible for the February strike.
Martyred Leader’s coffin carried toward Tehran's Azadi Square during funeral processionhttps://t.co/4TVRYBIWMT
— Press TV 🔻 (@PressTV) July 6, 2026
President Masoud Pezeshkian described the ceremony as "not a farewell, but a pledge to continue his path," casting the event as a demonstration of continuity for the Islamic Republic. Iranian state media presented the procession as a renewal of allegiance to the country's new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the slain leader's second son, who was named to the post shortly after his father's death.
Massive crowds of mourners turned out with great fervor for the funeral procession of the martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in Tehran. pic.twitter.com/E7AltOEHeY
— IRNA News Agency ☫ (@IrnaEnglish) July 6, 2026
Mojtaba Khamenei has not appeared in public since taking office and has communicated only through written statements.
Khamenei was killed on February 28 at the age of 86 on the opening day of the 2026 war with Israel and the United States; four family members died in the same strike: his eldest daughter, a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law, and a 14-month-old granddaughter.
The commemoration is scheduled to continue Tuesday in Qom, Iran's principal center of Shiite religious study, followed Wednesday by processions in the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala, home to shrines among the holiest sites in Shiite Islam. Khamenei is to be buried Thursday, July 9, at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, his birthplace in northeastern Iran, in accordance with his will.
