Slain Iranian Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Iran’s late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would be laid to rest in the holy city of Mashhad, according to a report by Fars News Agency on Tuesday.
Khamenei, who ruled Iran for 36 years, was killed at the age of 86 during a wave of US-Israeli airstrikes on Saturday. He hailed from Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, where his father is buried at the Imam Reza Shrine.
Before his interment, authorities will hold a “large farewell ceremony” in Tehran, according to a statement posted on Telegram by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. However, officials have yet to announce the date of the burial.
Following Khamenei’s death, power was temporarily transferred to a three-member interim council pending the election of a new leader by the Assembly of Experts. The council consists of the president, the head of the judiciary, and a senior jurist from the Guardian Council, which supervises legislation and screens electoral candidates.
Fars News Agency, quoting an official familiar with the process, reported that “for security reasons,” the assembly’s final meeting could be delayed until after Khamenei’s burial.
Meanwhile, Iranian media disclosed that the building housing the 88-member Assembly of Experts in Qom was struck on Tuesday during US-Israeli attacks. Its main headquarters in Tehran was also reportedly hit a day earlier.
