Overview
- State media and officials say the programme will span six days with the body to lie in state in Tehran then move in processions to Qom, Najaf, Karbala and return for burial in Mashhad.
- Iran has declared a high alert and expanded deployments of army ground, naval and air units with continuous air‑defence surveillance to guard routes, sites and visiting delegations.
- Authorities expect extremely large crowds and have proposed specific crowd‑control measures such as viewing platforms and possible helicopter use to move the coffin and manage flows after past fatal crushes.
- The new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has not appeared publicly and officials have not named who will lead the funeral prayer, leaving a central ritual moment unresolved.
- Officials say the body has been kept in refrigerated cold storage under clerical exceptions to normal burial rules, and the ceremonies are drawing many foreign delegations while heightening regional security and diplomatic tensions.