Iran’s supreme leader absent as senior officials attend ayatollah’s funeral

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 the 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.