Iran will hold funeral ceremonies for its late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from July 4 to July 9, with senior officials and representatives from more than 30 countries expected to attend, Iranian state media reported.
Ali Khamenei, who had led Iran since 1989, was assassinated at the age of 86 in U.S.-Israeli strikes on his compound in central Tehran on Feb. 28, according to Iranian authorities.
State media said delegations from Russia, China, Pakistan, India, Georgia and Cuba were among those expected to arrive in Iran for the ceremonies honouring Khamenei, whom Iranian authorities say was killed in a U.S.-Israeli strike on the first day of the 40-day war earlier this year.
According to state media, the ceremonies will begin on Saturday, with the late leader’s body lying in state at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla prayer complex. A funeral procession is scheduled to take place along a 10-km (6.2-mile) route through the capital before the ceremonies continue in the holy city of Qom on July 7, Iraq on July 8, and conclude with Khamenei’s burial in Mashhad on July 9.