Iran’s upcoming condolence ceremony for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has drawn worldwide attention, with much of the focus on whether Mojtaba Khamenei will make his first public appearance since succeeding his father.
According to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency, the ceremony will be held on Saturday after the Maghrib and Isha prayers in the city of Qom. It comes shortly after state media reported the completion of Ayatollah Khamenei’s funeral rites.
Mojtaba Khamenei’s expected role draws scrutiny
Tasnim said the ceremony will be led by Mojtaba Khamenei, the late leader’s son and successor. His reported role has intensified international interest because he has not appeared publicly since the outbreak of the war.
The report said official Iranian channels have not released any photographs, videos or audio recordings of Mojtaba during this period.
Mojtaba was designated as Iran’s new supreme leader by a clerical council in early March, about a week after his father’s reported death in military strikes on February 28.
Questions persist over Mojtaba’s absence
The political transition has remained clouded by uncertainty due to Mojtaba’s continued absence from public view.
Senior sources in Tehran, cited in the report, said he suffered severe injuries, including facial disfigurement and major trauma to his limbs, during the military strike that killed his father.
The sources said he is still recovering and has not regained sufficient health to resume public appearances. They also claimed Iranian intelligence agencies have restricted his visibility because of concerns over possible future US military action.
Ceremony to be held in Qom
Tasnim reported that the condolence gathering will take place at the Imam Khomeini portico inside the shrine of Hazrat Masumeh in Qom after the Maghrib and Isha prayers.
Maghrib and Isha are the final two obligatory daily Islamic prayers and are offered consecutively between sunset and dawn.
Burial follows week-long mourning
The ceremony follows the reported conclusion of Ayatollah Khamenei’s funeral.
Iranian state media said he was buried at the Shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad early on Friday after a week of funeral processions and mourning ceremonies across Iran and Iraq.
The events took place against the backdrop of renewed tensions between Tehran and Washington despite a truce reached last month after a four-month conflict.
According to the report, Iran’s clerical establishment used the funeral ceremonies to project the resilience and ideological commitment of the Islamic Republic.
Crowds gathered in large numbers during Thursday’s procession in Mashhad.
Participants chanted slogans against US President Donald Trump, including, “I swear by the blood of the supreme leader, Trump, we will kill you!” Several women also carried placards calling to “Kill Trump.”
By evening, the central courtyard of the Shrine of Imam Reza was filled with mourners as chants of “Death to America” echoed through the complex alongside traditional elegies played over loudspeakers.
The official IRNA news agency reported that Ayatollah Khamenei and four members of his family who were killed in the same attack had been buried.
The leadership transition comes after nearly four decades of Khamenei’s rule. It also follows months of nationwide protests against Iran’s theocratic government, which security agencies had suppressed earlier this year, according to the report. Khamenei became supreme leader in 1989 after the Islamic Revolution and, during his tenure, consolidated political, military and economic authority within his office.
(With inputs from ANI)