A number of Leaders and Delegations of Friendly Countries Pay Final Respect to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

JAKARTA - A number of leaders and delegations of friendly countries arrived in Tehran on Friday to pay their last respects in a formal ceremony for the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to Iranian media.

Khamenei was killed in a US-Israeli joint attack on Iran on February 28, which triggered a weeks-long war and increased tensions in the Middle East.

Among the senior officials who arrived in Tehran were Iraqi President Nizar Amidi, Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament Mohammed al-Halbousi and his parliamentary delegation, Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, and Uzbekistan Parliament Speaker Nuriddin Ismoilov, according to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB, as quoted by Anadolu (3/7).

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also arrived in Tehran to attend the funeral as head of an official delegation, according to a statement from his office.

Iranian media also reported the arrival of a delegation representing Palestinian clerics, Russian clerics, Turkish political parties, Lebanese political parties, representatives of India, and the Thai Shiite Muslim group to express condolences during the funeral ceremony.

Separately, representatives of the Bulgarian Republican Party and parliamentarians attended a memorial event to honor the late Iranian leader, according to Iranian media.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah also held a farewell ceremony in honor of Khamenei.

Iranian media said foreign delegations were expected to continue to arrive throughout the day, while the memorial event would continue in the coming days.

As previously reported, the funeral procession for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will begin Saturday.

However, official tribute ceremonies for heads of state, senior officials and religious leaders of various countries were held on Friday.

As previously reported, Khamenei's coffin, as well as a number of members of his family, was placed at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla in Tehran on Friday, quoted from CNN.

Iranian government media reported that the other coffins were Seyyedeh Boshra Hosseini Khamenei (Khamenei's eldest daughter), Mesbah-ol-Hoda Bagheri (son-in-law), Zahra Haddad Adel (daughter-in-law) and Zahra Mohammadi Golpaygani (14 months) who are Khamenei's grandchildren.

IRIB reported that a number of religious figures from Indonesia and Afghanistan were among the first to pay their last respects at the Grand Mosalla.

Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref, who was the main organizer of the funeral, described the ceremony, which began on Saturday in Tehran and will end with a funeral on Thursday in Mashhad, as "the most important event of this century" and the most attended event since the 1979 revolution, quoted from The Guardian.

A series of funerals on Saturday will be held at Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla, Tehran, where Khamenei and his family will be buried.

A six-mile (10 km) procession through central Tehran is planned on Monday from Imam Hossein Square to Azadi Square, the site of the 1979 revolution led by Khamenei after the death of the first supreme leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, in 1989 from natural causes.

Tehran's mayor, Alireza Zakani, described Monday's procession as "the largest gathering in the city's history" and estimated that around 20 million people would attend.

On Tuesday, Khamenei's body will be taken to the holy city of Qom, passing between the tomb of Fatima Masumeh and the Jamkaran Mosque.

Then, the body will be taken to the Iraqi Shiite strongholds of Karbala and Najaf on Wednesday. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has visited both cities to consult on the ceremony.

Meanwhile, the funeral on Thursday will take place at the Imam Reza Cemetery Complex in Mashhad, the birthplace of the supreme leader.