Source: Reuters
“Iran’s ruling clerics are preparing days of mass funeral rites for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a show of public devotion to the Islamic Republic and proof that its revolutionary fervour still burns strong. Iran’s supreme leader was killed by U.S. and Israeli strikes in their first attack of the war and the funeral events will begin over the weekend in Tehran, with mass processions planned next week in Qom and Mashhad and ceremonies in Iraq. ‘The large public turnout at the funeral procession of the martyred leader and the other martyrs will, in effect, be another referendum for the Islamic Republic,’ Qom Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Mohammad Saidi declared to state media. If they do see it as a referendum, authorities are not leaving the result to chance. They hope to mobilise millions of supporters to flood Iran’s cities, laying on transport, accommodation and food, to proclaim the might of their theocratic state after it survived what they saw as an existential war.” (07/03/26)