20 million expected: A record funeral for Khamenei

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was on 5 June 1989 briefly fell out of his coffin during a procession at the cemetery, such was the crowd and tumult. More than ten million peoplethen a sixth of the Iranian population, took part in the funeral procession. Worshipers attempted to tear off pieces of the shroud in which the Ayatollah was wrapped. A helicopter had to retrieve the body ritual preparations must be made again. 10,000 people were injured, eight were trampled in the crush.

It is still considered one of the largest funerals in history. For comparison: At Princess Diana was a million, at Johannes Paul II. There were over three million people on the streets.

To ensure that similar tumults and, above all, images do not take place this time, the regime’s security apparatus is taking strict precautions: more than 65,000 security forces are stationed in the major cities and 200,000 more in the rest of the country, according to the state news agency. The process is strictly timed, the access controls are extremely strict.

Compulsory attendance for civil servants

More than four months after the 86-year-old was killed, the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei instead of. The ceremony was originally scheduled for early March, but was postponed due to the ongoing war. The current ceasefire is fragile, negotiations between Iran and the USA are ongoing, even if it is not clear whether they will lead to peace in the long term. The fact that the regime is still holding the funeral is also a sign of self-confidence. It is considered very likely that it was in consultation with the USA, which was at the same time 250th Independence Day celebrate, takes place – both sides want to hold the commemorations without rockets.

Khamenei was in power three times as long as the revolutionary leader Khomeini, whose record funeral is expected to be surpassed: More than 20 million peopleincluding pilgrims from other Shiite countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, are expected. Not everyone comes voluntarily: Iranian state employees are required to attend.

Government representatives from China, Belarus, Iraq and Turkmenistan, among others, are also said to be in Tehran since Friday, including the Pakistani Chief of General Staff Asim Munirthe Donald Trump described as his “favorite field marshal” and who plays an essential role in the ongoing negotiations. In the Iranian media there is talk of representatives from 100 countries.

Everyone is waiting Modschtaba Khamenei

The ceremony will last six days. For security reasons, Iran will close its airspace for several days. Before Khamenei is buried in his hometown of Mashhad with his family members who died in the attack, he is greeted by the Großmoschee Mosalla in Teheran to the pilgrimage city of Qom – one of the holiest cities, where Khamenei studied like many other religious scholars – and then to Iraq. Huge portraits of Khamenei covered the facade of the Grand Mosalla, where the body will be laid out in public on Saturday. In Tehran, these three days will be days of remembrance; apart from the mourning masses, the Iranian capital will stand still: the regime has ordered that shops must remain closed and no work is allowed.

The big question is whether, for the first time since Khamenei’s killing, his son and successor, the arch-conservative and close to the Revolutionary Guards Modschtaba Khamenei, will appear publicly. Modschtaba Khamenei’s wife and son are said to have been killed in the US and Israeli airstrike on Ali Khamenei; since then he has only made public statements in written statements. What caused the rumors to flare up: Is he created unrecognizably – or even dead and being kept alive by the Revolutionary Guards? Arab media quote the person responsible for the organization, Ali-Akbar Purjamshidian: “The participation of the Supreme Leader is beyond my jurisdiction and my knowledge.”

Regardless of whether the Supreme Leader will be present or not, the regime is using the huge public event for threats and as a show of force towards the USA and Israel: “With even greater determination, we declare to the enemies of the Iranian nation – America and the criminal Zionist regime – that we will avenge the blood of the martyr leader,” said Iranian General Amir Hatami.