Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new Supreme Leader, remained absent from public view on Sunday as his father, former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and four members of the family were honoured with state funeral prayers in Tehran. While state television broadcast images of three of Khamenei’s sons praying alongside Iran’s political and military leadership, Mojtaba’s continued absence fuelled attention after Iranian state media said he would skip the funeral ceremonies over security concerns.The prayers took place at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla, where Khamenei’s body has been lying in state since Saturday for public mourning and official farewell ceremonies.State television showed Mostafa, Meysam and Masoud Khamenei praying behind the coffins at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla. According to AP, Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani, a 97-year-old Shiite cleric, later led the funeral prayers, which were attended by the three brothers along with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Revolutionary Guard chief gen. Ahmad Vahidi and Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani. The new supreme leader is expected to skip the six days of funeral ceremonies over security concerns amid continued Israeli threats to assassinate him. Despite not being seen in public ever since the succession, in a written statement, Mojtaba had authorised the memorandum of understanding signed by the Iranian and US presidents despite holding a “different view”, after receiving assurances from senior Iranian officials that it would safeguard “the rights of the Iranian nation and the resistance front”. Mojtaba has not been seen in public since the February 28 attack that killed his father and four other family members during Israeli and US strikes on Iranian targets at the start of the war. No official images of the new supreme leader have been released since then. People close to his inner circle told Reuters that he suffered facial disfigurement and significant injuries to one or both legs in the attack.The funeral ceremonies began on Saturday after Khamenei’s body lay in state indoors for senior Iranian leaders and foreign officials to pay their respects. Later, his coffin was displayed outdoors under glass alongside those of his daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and 14-month-old granddaughter.During Sunday’s prayers, state television showed Masoud Khamenei wiping away tears with a keffiyeh as funeral prayers were recited. Crowds gathered at the Mosalla through the night, with many mourners weeping and some beating their chests. Iran’s metro network said it recorded seven million trips between late Saturday and Sunday morning as people travelled to central Tehran.The funeral programme will continue with what Iranian authorities have billed as a massive procession through central Tehran on Monday, before Khamenei’s remains are taken to the seminary city of Qom on Tuesday. The body will then be flown to the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq for further ceremonies on Wednesday, before returning to Iran for a final procession and burial in Mashhad on Thursday, near the shrine of Imam Reza.
