A ceremony commemorating Iran’s late leader Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran has been postponed, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency, days after he was assassinated along with family members in joint air strikes by Israel and the United States,
Al Jazeera reports.
The news agency quoted an official citing logistical issues for the delay, including requests from people in different provinces to attend the ceremony.
Funeral arrangements are ongoing and are expected to draw huge crowds, and, with them, the potential threat of US-Israeli attacks on a gathering of mass mourning. Some 10 million people attended Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s funeral in 1989.
The report comes hours after Hojjatoleslam Mahmoudi, head of Iran’s Islamic Propagation Council, has initially said the farewell ceremony would start at 10pm (18:30 GMT) at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Prayer Hall and continue for three days.
“The prayer hall will be receiving visitors and the dear people can attend and take part in the farewell ceremony and mark a strong presence once again,” Mahmoudi said in comments carried by Iranian media.
Khamenei was killed on Saturday, aged 86. He had been Iran’s supreme leader since 1989, succeeding Khomeini, the founder of the post-shah Iran, who steered the country’s 1979 revolution.
The supreme leader holds ultimate authority over all branches of government, the military and the judiciary, while also acting as the country’s spiritual leader.
Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a senior Iranian cleric who is a member of both the powerful Guardian Council and Assembly of Experts, said the country was close to choosing the late Khamenei’s successor.
“The Supreme Leader will be identified in the closest opportunity, we are close to a conclusion, however the situation in the country is a war situation,” Khatami told state TV.
