Iran is commemorating its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the first strikes of the U.S.-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s new leaders are marking his death and his 37-year tenure with a funeral unlike any other in the country’s recent history. The procession will take the ayatollah’s body — preserved for four months since the bombing — to at least five cities across Iran and neighboring Iraq. Tens of millions of people are expected to attend commemorations full of political and religious messaging.
The turnout at the funeral is being portrayed as a referendum on the legitimacy of Iran’s authoritarian, clerical rule. Ayatollah Khamenei oversaw a brutal crackdown on nationwide protests in January that killed thousands and deepened societal divisions, and a large turnout at the funeral is likely to be used by the government as evidence that it still retains broad-based support among Iranians.
For Iran’s leaders, the public fanfare is a message to the world, too: After a devastating war that aimed to topple the regime, the Islamic Republic is still standing.
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