Overview
- The public viewing and state mourning in Tehran began Friday with Iran showing arrivals and a ceremony at the Grand Mosalla that officials say will draw large crowds.
- China will be represented by He Wei and Russia by Dmitry Medvedev while Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and other regional delegations have also arrived for the Tehran events.
- Officials say the official rites will proceed from Tehran to Qom and to Iraq before the burial at the Imam Reza mausoleum in Mashhad scheduled for July 9.
- Mojtaba Khamenei has been absent from recent family ceremonies and has not been seen in public since he was reported wounded in the February strike that killed Ali Khamenei.
- Qatar’s foreign ministry says Iran and U.S. negotiators are due to meet after the July 9 burial, a timetable that turns the funerals into both a domestic legitimacy test and a narrow diplomatic opening.