People cross the street in front of a large billboard showing the portraits of Iran’s late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (left) and slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (right) in central Tehran on June 8, 2026.
flour edge AFP | getty images
Iran is organizing a six-day funeral procession for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who led the Islamic republic for four decades and was killed on the first day of the US-Israeli war in February.
the ceremony will begin July 4, almost four months after Khamenei’s assassination, And will end on July 9. The procession will cover cities across Iran and Iraq before the final burial in Mashhad, Iran’s holiest city.
Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, told CNBC that the funeral, which would have been “a stark display of mourning, continuity and regime control,” had been delayed for several months because of the fighting.
“The event is expected to draw millions of mourners and may reveal tensions beneath the surface,” the lawyer said.
The Islamic Republic is expected to take unprecedented security measures under the supervision of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, while the Basij paramilitary force will coordinate logistics, housing and crowd management in various cities.
Khamenei’s final resting place is in his hometown of the holy city of Mashhad, which holds deep religious significance for Shia Islam, and where his father, the previous ayatollah, is buried.
Khamenei’s funeral route and program
The funeral is designed as both a national and religious procession, touching down on some of the most important sites of Shia Islam in Iran and neighboring Iraq.
“This is fundamentally a political program that is portrayed as a religious one. It is designed to demonstrate legitimacy domestically and deterrence abroad,” Alex Vatanka, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told CNBC.
4-5 July: Tehran
The public farewell ceremony begins around 6 a.m. local time at Tehran’s Mosallah prayer complex, the traditional venue for major state religious ceremonies and previous funerals of senior Islamic Republic figures.
6 July: Tehran
The main funeral procession will travel about 10 kilometers from Imam Hossein Square to Azadi (Freedom) Square after the funeral prayers for the slain Ayatollah and his family.
Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani has said attendance could reach 20 million people, potentially making it the largest gathering in the city’s history.
People wave Iranian flags as they attend the funeral of Iranian Revolutionary Guards naval commander Alireza Tangsiri along with others killed in US-Israeli attacks on Iran at Enghelab Square in Tehran on April 1, 2026.
AFP | getty images
July 7: Kom
The procession then moves towards Qom, the spiritual center of Shia learning in Iran.
The events will take place between the Shrine of Fatima Masumeh and the Jamkaran Mosque, the two most important religious sites of Twelver Shiism.
July 8: Najaf and Karbala, Iraq
The body will then be flown to Iraq for ceremonies in Najaf and Karbala, home to the shrines of Imam Ali and Imam Hussein, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam. Iranian authorities have coordinated preparations for the events with Iraqi authorities.
9 July: Mashhad
Khamenei will be buried in Mashhad, his birthplace and Iran’s holiest city.
The city is home to the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Imam of Shia Islam and holds deep religious significance for millions of pilgrims. Mashhad is also the place where Khamenei was born and where his father is buried. Iranian officials estimate that 8 million to 10 million people could attend the final burial ceremony.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves during a public rally in Mashhad, Iran, on March 21, 2023.
Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader wanna via reuters
Who is expected to attend the funeral?
More than 30 countries have officially requested participation, Tasnim news agency quoted the IRGC’s Ali Akbar Pourjamshidian as saying this week.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that Pakistan had confirmed its presence, and He Wei, a senior Chinese lawmaker, planned to attend.
No Gulf Arab government has publicly announced whether senior officials, foreign ministers or heads of state will attend.
Iran’s Fars news agency said on Wednesday that senior Iraqi officials, including President Nizar Amedee, would attend the funeral.
The new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, would in principle want to remain present and visible and mourn his father’s death with the nation. He has not been seen in public since his accession to the throne following the death of his father. Any appearance would be read as a show of force for the United States.
“Now come regime challenges, including deep economic problems, significant social unrest, fears of renewed hostilities and a relatively untested – and as yet invisible, new supreme leader,” Naysan Rafati, senior Iran analyst at Crisis Group, told CNBC.
File photo: Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, attends a meeting in Tehran, Iran, July 18, 2016.
Ameer Kholousi via reuters
security operation
The scale of the event requires significant planning.
Authorities have said that highways around Tehran will be turned into temporary parking areas, while schools, mosques, universities and sports halls will be used to accommodate visitors. Flights are expected to be disrupted and access to major cities strictly controlled.
Iran may be hoping to avoid another major security breach as foreign dignitaries visit the country, such as the inauguration ceremony of Massoud Pezeshkian in July 2024, during which Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed at a military-run guest house in Tehran.