Tehran: Its been over seven weeks now since Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a joint strike by the US and Israel, but Iran seems “too afraid” to hold an elaborate funeral service for its former supreme leader.
According to reports, Tehran is yet to determine the burial site for Khamenei, who was killed on February 28.
When Iran held a days-long funeral for Khamenei’s predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei in 1989, millions of countrymen swarmed the streets of Tehran in mourning. Nothing of that kind was visible for Khamenei in the wake of the US-Iran war, Hindustan Times reported.
Iran is in no position to hold an elaborate memorial service as the war is currently in the middle of an uncertain truce — which is also set to end on Wednesday, Behnam Taleblu from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told The New York Post.
“Simply put, the regime is too afraid and too weak to roll the dice,” he said.
Several senior Iranian officials, including the country’s security chief Ali Larijani, have been assassinated in the US-Israeli strikes during the past weeks of the war.
Iran’s inability to hold a funeral even
after over a month has passed since Ali Khamenei’s death “speaks volumes”, Taleblu said, recalling Khomenei’s funeral.
“The Islamic Republic likes to talk a big game about owning the streets, but a 50-day internet blackout tells you all you need to know. The regime fears the consequences of the truth getting out,” Taleblu was quoted as saying.
In March, IRGC-affiliated Fars News reported that Khamenei would be buried in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad.
“Officials at the headquarters organising the grand farewell ceremony for him are planning to hold a public memorial in the capital,” the report stated.
Mashhad, a city of nearly five million, is Khamenei’s hometown.
Iran announced a three-day farewell for the slain supreme leader days after his killing. Iranian media had then reported that the ceremony would be held at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini prayer ground.
Hojjatoleslam Mahmoudi, head of Iran’s Islamic Propagation Council, had been quoted by state media as saying that the farewell ceremony would continue for three days. A funeral procession will be announced later, he had said. However, no such memorial service took place.
Iran and the US are currently in the middle of a two-week ceasefire, which will end on Wednesday. Following a round of failed negotiations in Islamabad, no date has yet been announced for a fresh round of talks between Tehran and Washington.
On Saturday, US President Donald Trump implied that the war with Iran could resume if no deal is reached by Wednesday.