The body of Iran’s late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was interred late on 9 July in the Dar al-Dhikr prayer hall of the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, bringing to a close six days of choreographed funeral processions across Iran and Iraq. The burial, reported by Iranian state media, occurred hours after US forces struck a section of the Tehran–Mashhad railway, which Iranian officials described as an attempt to disrupt the ceremonies. In parallel, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had launched drone and missile attacks on US-linked military infrastructure in Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar, while Jordan’s military reported intercepting eight missiles launched from Iranian territory.

Viewed from Tehran, the funeral was designed to project national cohesion and revolutionary resolve after a war that, according to Iranian authorities, began with a joint US-Israeli strike on 28 February that killed Khamenei and several family members. Senior Iranian figures, including Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Judiciary Chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, attended the rites, and state television broadcast images of vast crowds. Iranian media claimed that between 41 and 43 million people participated in the week’s events. Conspicuously absent, however, was Khamenei’s son and designated successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since the February attack and is reported by Western news agencies to have been seriously wounded. Iranian officials have not confirmed his condition, and his only communications have been written statements.

From Washington, US defence officials stated that the overnight strikes on the railway and other targets were intended to degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, and President Donald Trump warned that attacks could intensify. The exchange of fire threatens to derail a preliminary memorandum of understanding signed three weeks earlier that had raised hopes of ending the conflict. Regional analysts note that the succession vacuum in Tehran adds a layer of unpredictability: Mojtaba Khamenei’s prolonged absence has left the clerical establishment without a visible figurehead at a moment of acute military and political pressure, while the public funeral for his father was used by Iranian officials to rally support and call for vengeance against the United States and Israel.

The funeral processions began on 3 July at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla, where delegations from more than 45 countries paid respects, and moved through Qom before the coffin was flown to the Iraqi shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala at the request of Iraqi religious authorities. Iraqi officials and millions of mourners received the body in what Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian later described as a reflection of “genuine Islamic and Arab generosity.” The return to Mashhad, Khamenei’s birthplace, marked the final stage. With the burial complete, attention now shifts to whether the US and Iran can salvage the preliminary ceasefire framework, and to the unresolved question of how the Islamic Republic will manage a leadership transition that remains, for now, invisible to the public.