Funeral ceremonies announced for late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei died at age 86 during U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran on February 28. His remains were moved to the Imam Khomeini Mosalla complex in Tehran to prepare for public funeral rites. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament, has called for mass public participation in the ceremonies, which coincide with a fragile ceasefire between Iran and the United States. While authorities project between 15 and 20 million attendees in Tehran, official schedules indicate ceremonies will take place between July 4 and July 9. The itinerary includes memorial events in Tehran, Qom, and Mashhad in Iran, as well as Najaf and Karbala in Iraq. Khamenei is expected to be interred at the Imam Reza Shrine in his birthplace of Mashhad. This marks the first instance in modern Iranian history of a sitting Supreme Leader being killed while in office.