TEHRAN, March 4 — Iran announced that a state funeral for supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which had been planned for Wednesday evening in Tehran, was postponed “in anticipation of unprecedented turnout,” state television reported.
“The farewell ceremony for the martyred Imam has been postponed. The new date will be announced later,” Iranian television reported on Wednesday after Khamenei was killed at 86 in US-Israeli strikes over the weekend.
On Wednesday morning, authorities had said a tribute would take place that same evening in Tehran before Khamenei’s body was buried in the holy city of Mashhad, where he was from.
Strikes have pummelled Tehran since Saturday, with missiles targeting military and government infrastructure.
Authorities did not link the postponement to the security situation.
It was partly down to “the expected participation of millions of people and the need to provide the proper infrastructure” for such a crowd, Mohsen Mahmoudi, head of Tehran’s Islamic Development Coordination Council, the body organising the event, told state TV. — AFP
