From the early hours of the morning, a crowd assembled at the Imam Khomeini Mosque complex in the Iranian capital to attend the funeral rites and pay tribute to Khamenei.

  Funeral prayers were held in a designated area within the religious complex and were led by Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani.

  Numerous political and military officials, as well as religious figures—including Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian—participated in the ceremony.

  According to authorities, farewell processions will take place on the streets of Tehran on Monday before the body is transported to the city of Qom.

   Iran began official funeral ceremonies for Khamenei on Friday, marking the start of a week of mourning and processions that will include stops in various Iranian and Iraqi cities prior to his burial in Mashhad, in the country’s northeast.

   Iranian authorities plan to bury Khamenei on July 9 at the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad.

  Khamenei died on February 28 in a US-Israeli airstrike, according to Iranian sources.

jdt/oda/fm