Iran’s top officials attended the prayer of the late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – National
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s top officials and the brothers of the country’s new leader appeared publicly Sunday to attend the funeral prayer for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, showing renewed confidence in their safety as calls grow for the assassination of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Their presence in front of hundreds of thousands of people in the capital Tehran would have been unimaginable during the war in Iran, which saw the first airstrike on February 28 kill the 86-year-old Khamenei, members of his family and other officials.
Israel has also targeted others who have gone public during the war, in at least one case possibly using their public appearances to justify their stance on the strike.
But not yet seen was Iran’s new leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. He is believed to be in hiding after reportedly being injured in an airstrike that killed his father. Israel has threatened to kill him as he leads the theocracy that is now negotiating with the United States on a permanent end to the war and Iran that is choking traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting energy supplies around the world.
Ziba Naderi, a 42-year-old nurse who attended the funeral on Sunday, said Iran needs to follow whatever Mojtaba Khamenei orders for the nation.
“I heard the call for revenge, but our leader has to say what we have to do,” he said. “And we must listen to him.”
The funeral includes prayers and calls for revenge
Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani, a 97-year-old Shiite cleric, led prayers at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla for Khamenei and his late family members.
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On hand were Khamenei’s sons Masoud, Meysam and Mostafa, who have not been seen since the war began. The head of the Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, who was photographed for the first time since the war on Thursday, could be seen in the crowd by Associated Press reporters, flanked by plainclothes soldiers wearing a black baseball cap.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and Esmail Qaani, who heads the Quds Force, were also present.
Their appearance comes as posters and graffiti in Grand Mosalla call for the assassination of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mohammad Rasouli, a poet who welcomed the occasion before the prayer, shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
Addressing the crowd through loudspeakers at the funeral, Rasouli asked, referring to Trump, “Why is a man with no morals still alive in the world?”
The question drew cheers from the crowd, with Rasouli saying “the world is no longer a good place” for Trump. It was noted for the first time, a direct threat to Trump’s life by an official during the funeral.
Trump’s threats escalate at funeral
The American president was giving a speech at the same time around the world in Washington, DC, when the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States was celebrated.
“We’ve had great success,” Trump said of the US military. “You look at Venezuela, you look at Iran. We eliminated them, we eliminated their soldiers.”
The crowd was much bigger at the funeral than the previous day which was Sunday. Black-clad mourners took to the scene, carrying banners and flags honoring Khamenei and calling for Trump’s death.
“I came here to scream and to take revenge,” said Gholamreza Sabooni, a 29-year-old man who works in a shop. “They killed our imam, we have to kill their leader, Trump.”
US authorities have been tracking Iranian threats against Trump and other administration officials for years. That’s from Trump ordering the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who led the Quds Force in 2020. Iran has repeatedly denied planning to assassinate Trump, although hard-line propaganda has long suggested Trump is in Tehran’s crosshairs.
Meanwhile Trump promised to destroy Iran’s civilization during the war among other threats.
The funeral postpones talks with the US
Khamenei’s body will be transported to cities in Iran and neighboring Iraq, and authorities plan to drive his coffin with others through the streets of Tehran on Monday. Authorities closed roads, the airport and daily life in mourning, which will end on Thursday as he is buried at the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad, where Khamenei was born.
Authorities did not give the number of people who attended the event on Saturday and Sunday. Other cities across Iran also held mourning ceremonies.
At the moment, negotiations to reach an end to the war are on hold until the funeral is over. Having the majority of votes could prove crucial as Iran tries to use its power in the Strait of Hormuz in negotiations as Israel fears further aggression.
“Our foreign policy should not be shaped in a way that allows the blood of our martyred leader to be disrespected and other countries are able to do things like this, without a deep response from our government and our international relations program,” said mourner Mohammad Reza Sharifi.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
