Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was conspicuously absent from his father’s funeral, as senior regime figures joined thousands paying their respects to the late ayatollah on Sunday.
Ali Khamenei’s other three sons – Masoud, Mostafa and Meysam – all attended the service on Sunday, alongside officials including President Masoud Pezeshkian and Revolutionary Guards chief Ahmad Vahidi.
Speculation about Mojtaba’s condition – fuelled by rumours he was wounded in the same US-Israel air strikes that killed his father – has continued as he has not appeared in public since his appointment in early March.
The elder Khamenei ruled the Islamic republic from 1989 until his death in February.
Official funeral proceedings for late supreme leader began on Friday, with events planned across Iran and Iraq over the coming week.
Iranian authorities say 12-20 million people are expected to attend the ceremonies, which they are calling the “funeral of the century”.
Khamenei’s body is currently lying in state at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla religious complex, with a funeral service led by prominent Shia cleric Jafar Sobhani, a 97-year-old scholar who teaches at seminaries in the holy city of Qom.
Sunday was declared a public holiday across Iran, and later in the day Khamenei’s body will be moved out of the Grand Mosalla ahead of a processions through the capital on Monday.
The ceremonies have been carefully choreographed and Mojtaba Khamenei’s absence from the proceedings comes on a backdrop of fears that Israel may want to assassinate him as well.
A fragile ceasefire between the warring countries is currently holding while talks on a permanent peace deal continue – though both sides have warned they were ready to resume military action.
