Iran: Social networks discourage people from attending Ayatollah Khamenei’s funeral

Iranian parliamentarian Morteza Mahmoudi said there was a “suspicious” campaign on social media aimed at discouraging people from attending the funeral of Iran’s supreme leader. Iranians are being warned about the dangers of large crowds.

“Since yesterday, suspicious information has been circulating in cyberspace to prevent people from attending the Leader’s funeral ceremony under the pretext of crowds, and it has spread quickly!” – Mahmoudi wrote in X.

Meanwhile, Iran expects that over the next three days 15-20 million people will join the farewell to the Ayatollah.

Tehran airports are closed during the funeral. 2.5 thousand ambulance teams, 21 helicopters, 100 drones, thousands of rescuers and more than two dozen hospitals have been put on high alert.

Let us recall that in recent Iranian history there have been at least two cases of mass crushes at the funerals of leaders. In the summer of 1989, the burial of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was accompanied by riots: people tried to touch the coffin, which caused it to turn over. Eight people died in the stampede, and the number of injured exceeded 11 thousand.

In 2020, the funeral of IRGC General Qassem Soleimani also led to a stampede in which at least 56 procession participants died and about 2 thousand people received varying degrees of injuries.

Ayatollah Khamenei was killed on February 28 as a result of a US-Israeli strike against the top of the ayatollah regime. His nominal successor as head of state was his son Mojtaba. However, it is unclear how much control he has over the situation and who really controls Iran.