Iran funeral prayers draw huge crowds as leaders signal defiance in Tehran

Tehran,UPDATED: Jul 5, 2026 20:40 IST

Iran's top officials and members of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's family appeared in public in Tehran on Sunday for funeral prayers for the late supreme leader, signalling confidence in their safety as the country pushes back against US demands in talks aimed at permanently ending the war.

Hundreds of thousands of mourners gathered for the prayers, chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" and calling for revenge over the February 28 attack that killed the 86-year-old Khamenei and other senior officials. Some hard-liners also called for the assassination of US President Donald Trump. Iran's new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, did not appear at the ceremonies and is believed to be in hiding after reportedly being wounded in the airstrike that killed his father.

At the height of the war, before an April ceasefire, Israel targeted top Iranian leaders and in at least one case likely used a public appearance to fix their position. Israel has also threatened to kill Mojtaba Khamenei. The US, meanwhile, is continuing negotiations with Iran on fully reopening the Strait of Hormuz and rolling back its disputed nuclear programme.

Ziba Naderi, a 42-year-old nurse attending the funeral, said Iran needed to follow Mojtaba Khamenei's instructions. "I heard the call for revenge, but our leader should say what we need to do," she said. "And we must listen to him."

Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani, a 97-year-old Shiite cleric, led the prayers at Tehran's Grand Mosque for Khamenei and family members killed in the strike. Also present were Khamenei's sons Masoud, Meysam and Mostafa, who had not been seen since the war. Revolutionary Guard chief Gen Ahmad Vahidi, photographed for the first time since the war on Thursday, was also seen in the crowd by Associated Press journalists, surrounded by plainclothes security personnel and wearing a black baseball cap.

President Masoud Pezeshkian, Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who has led negotiations with the US, and Esmail Qaani, who heads the elite Quds Force of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also attended. The crowd was larger than the day before, with mourners in black carrying banners and flags in Khamenei's honour.

Posters and graffiti at the Grand Mosque called for the killing of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mohammad Rasouli, a poet who emceed the event before the prayers, told the crowd over loudspeakers, referring to Trump, "Why is the biggest bastard in the world still alive?" He then said, "The world is no longer a good place," as the crowd cheered. Gholamreza Sabooni, a 29-year-old grocery store worker, said, "I came here to shout and seek revenge. They killed our imam; we should kill their leader, Trump."

At the same time, Trump was speaking in Washington, DC, at an event marking the 250th anniversary of America's founding. "We've had tremendous success," he said of the US military. "You look at Venezuela, you look at Iran. We wiped it out, wiped out their military." US federal authorities have tracked Iranian threats against Trump and other administration officials for years, linked to Trump's order to kill Gen Qassem Soleimani in 2020. Iran has repeatedly denied plotting to kill Trump, though hard-line propaganda footage has long suggested he was in Tehran's crosshairs. During the war, Trump also threatened to destroy Iran's civilisation.

Khamenei's body is to be taken to cities in Iran and neighbouring Iraq, with authorities planning to drive his casket and others through Tehran on Monday. Streets, airspace and daily life have been shut down for the mourning period, which will end on Thursday with his burial at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, his birthplace. Authorities did not provide attendance figures for the events on Saturday and Sunday, and other cities across Iran also held mourning ceremonies.

Talks on a permanent end to the war appear to be on hold until the funeral concludes. The funeral has also served as a show of unity and defiance as Iran presses its demand for a degree of control over the Strait of Hormuz, which it shut during the war. The US has rejected that demand, and the two sides remain divided over other major issues, including the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran's nuclear programme. A multinational maritime body overseen by the US Navy said on Sunday that the US had assisted 70 transits through the Strait of Hormuz in the previous 72 hours, including 18 on Saturday. It described traffic near Oman and Iran as steady but still below prewar levels, with the threat level remaining "substantial" and mine-clearance and surveying work continuing.

Mourner Mohammad Reza Sharifi said, "Our foreign policy should not be shaped in a way that allows our martyred leader's blood to be dishonoured, and other countries can afford to do such things, without any serious response from our government and diplomatic system." The funeral ceremonies have brought together Iran's top leadership, large mourning crowds and sharp calls for revenge, even as negotiations with the US remain unresolved and are expected to resume only after the mourning period ends.

With PTI Inputs

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