As Iran enters the final phase of national mourning for its long-serving supreme leader Ali Khamenei, the country is bracing for a historic burial ceremony in his northeastern hometown of Mashhad on Thursday, even as new U.S. military strikes have sent regional tensions soaring and reignited fears of a full-scale escalation of the ongoing Middle East conflict.
Khamenei, who led the Islamic Republic of Iran for 34 years starting in 1989, was killed on February 28, the opening day of coordinated U.S.-Israeli strikes that launched the current war. The 86-year-old leader died alongside multiple family members and senior government officials in an Israeli airstrike, and his remains have traveled a multi-city, multi-day funeral route that has drawn millions of mourners across Iran and neighboring Iraq.
After three days of public lying-in-state in the capital Tehran, Khamenei’s casket was moved first to the holy clerical city of Qom on Tuesday, then to the Iraqi Shia holy sites of Najaf and Karbala for a mass procession on Wednesday. Delays from the Iraq ceremony forced organizers to push back the start of Thursday’s burial events from 6:00 a.m. local time to 2:00 p.m., according to local Iranian media. By Thursday evening, Khamenei will be laid to rest in the Shrine of Imam Reza, Iran’s most sacred Shia religious site, where the 8th Shia Imam— the only one of the 12 principal Shia imams buried in modern Iran— is entombed. He will be buried alongside four family members killed in the same February 28 strike: his infant granddaughter, daughter, son-in-law, and daughter-in-law Zahra Haddad Adel, wife of Khamenei’s son and designated successor Mojtaba Khamenei.
Per the late leader’s own pre-stated wishes, conveyed to state media by his chief of staff Mohammad Mohammadi-Golpaygani, Mashhad was selected as his final resting place. The Shrine of Imam Reza has hosted the burials of dozens of prominent Iranian figures across centuries, including former monarchs and ex-president Ebrahim Raisi. Mashhad governor Hassan Hosseini told state television that authorities expect up to 15 million mourners to gather for the burial, a turnout that the ruling Islamic Republic hopes will project national unity and domestic strength just six months after a harsh government crackdown on widespread anti-government protests, and weeks after the outbreak of war.
All eyes remain on Mojtaba Khamenei, the late leader’s confirmed successor, who has not yet made any public appearance since the strike that killed his father. Multiple reports indicate he was injured in the same attack that killed Khamenei and his family members, leaving a period of political uncertainty hanging over the country even as the funeral proceeds.
The somber occasion of the national burial has been overshadowed by a sharp new escalation in hostilities between Iran and the United States. Just as the funeral entered its final day, the U.S. launched new strikes on Iranian coastal targets, in retaliation for recent Iranian attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic global oil chokepoint that has been a core point of contention between Tehran and Washington for decades.
U.S. Central Command confirmed the strikes, stating they were intended to degrade Iranian military capabilities to threaten commercial navigation in the strait. U.S. President Donald Trump, who earlier declared the fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire that paused five weeks of intense hostilities was over, issued a stark warning Thursday: if Iran continues targeting vessels in the waterway, he promised “much worse” consequences to come. Tehran has already responded to the new U.S. strikes by saying it launched attacks on U.S. military bases stationed in Bahrain and Kuwait, raising the stakes of a rapid return to full-scale conflict. Global leaders have issued widespread calls for restraint from both sides, as the region teeters on the edge of a wider war that could disrupt global energy supplies and destabilize the entire Middle East.