Thousands of people are on the streets in Tehran for the funeral procession for Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei .
Crowds have been making their way through the Iranian capital since the early hours of Monday, with people seen waving flags and holding up pictures of the late ayatollah
It’s a carefully choreographed and intensely political event, writes Lyse Doucet, with Iran’s new leaders wanting to send a message of strength and resistance
Khamenei, who ruled Iran for more than 35 years, was killed in US-Israeli air strikes in February – his funeral began on Friday, with events planned over the coming week
The burial is scheduled for Thursday in the north-eastern city of Mashhad – Iranian authorities say millions are expected to attend the “funeral of the century”
Khamenei’s son Mojtaba has been named his successor, though he hasn’t been seen publicly since taking power and has so far been absent from his father’s funeral
A fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran is currently holding while talks on a permanent peace deal continue
Today is the last of three days of public mourning in Tehran before the ceremonies move to the holiest of cities for Shia Muslims in Iran and neighbouring Iraq.
And it is the most significant moment in what is not just a funeral – but a carefully choreographed and intensely political event.
The cortege is now inching its way through this city, slowed by huge crowds of the most religious and most loyal.
Iran’s new leaders want this spectacle of millions of mourners, grieving and angry, to send a message of strength – of resistance, as they call it – to enemies outside and inside Iran.
