Khamenei’s body arrives in Qom after the mass farewell in Tehran

The remains of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei arrived this Monday afternoon in the Iranian city of Qom after completing three days of events in memory of the late Iranian supreme leader held in Tehran. After a day in Qom, Khamenei’s body will be taken to Iraq and will later return to Iran, specifically to Mashhad, where he will receive burial.

“The body of the martyred leader has arrived in Qom,” reported Iranian public television, IRIB, which broadcast images of the helicopter that carried the coffin to Qom.

The commission in charge of the funeral has reported that on Wednesday the body will be taken to Iraq, to ​​the cities of Najaf and Karbala, in the south of the Shiite-majority country. In Najaf the procession will be 6 kilometers long and in Karbala, 5.8 kilometers, always with strict security measures. Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian will travel to Iraq.

The last acts of the funeral, which began last Friday, will be on Thursday in the city of Mashhad, where he will be buried in the sanctuary of Imam Reza, the eighth Shiite imam, fulfilling the last will of the leader, who died on February 28 in an Israeli attack during the first day of the last US-Israeli offensive against Iran.

The images of faithful beating their chests in mourning and the crowd in the square surrounding the emblematic Azadi tower have been the highlight of Monday’s funeral procession events in the Iranian capital. There have also been chants calling for revenge for Khamenei’s blood and calls for resistance. Among the crowd, the flags of Iran and portraits of the late leader.

Khamenei’s coffin is always accompanied by those of his relatives killed in the same attack: Sayedé Boshra Hoseini Khamenei, Mesbá al Hoda Baqeri, Zahra Hadad Adel and Zahra Mohamadi Golpayegani.