The funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is scheduled to take place at the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad on Thursday, more than four months after Iran’s supreme leader was killed in an Israeli airstrike, according to Germany’s dpa news agency.
The burial ceremony at Iran’s holiest Shiite shrine will be held in private, following days of public mourning in Tehran, Qom and neighbouring Iraq.
Attention is now focused on whether Khamenei’s son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, will make his first public appearance since the Iran war as the funeral procession reaches its final destination in Mashhad. Mojtaba has not been seen publicly since being named supreme leader in March, fuelling speculation about his health.
Ali Khamenei was killed on Feb. 28 in an Israeli airstrike targeting his official residence in Tehran.
