Iran funeral ceremonies for Ali Khamenei begin in Tehran as India names delegation
Iran is due to begin state funeral and farewell ceremonies for former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran on July 4, with burial scheduled in Mashhad on July 9. The latest details confirm that the mourning events have been rescheduled after an earlier plan for burial in March was postponed when the conflict escalated. The ceremonies are being treated as a major state occasion, with invitations sent to political figures and foreign representatives.
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India will be represented by Bihar governor Syed Ata Hasnain and Minister of State for External Affairs Pabitra Margherita, according to the supplied report. They are expected to travel with officials from the Ministry of External Affairs. The report also says Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, party leader Pawan Khera and former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid received invitations for the burial ceremonies, although Kharge will not attend and has nominated Khurshid to represent him and the party.
The funeral follows Khamenei's death in a US-Israeli air strike on Tehran on February 28, 2026, after he had ruled Iran for three decades. The timing and scale of the ceremonies underline the political sensitivity of the transition and the effort by Iranian authorities to manage the public farewell as an organised state event. The involvement of Indian officials and opposition figures also gives the funeral a diplomatic dimension beyond Iran's borders.
The report says formal invitations were issued by the Iranian leadership, including President Masoud Pezeshkian and Mojtaba Khamenei. It also notes that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was invited last month, but his attendance is considered unlikely because of other travel plans around the same period. That makes the guest list a sign of how Iran is using the funeral to project continuity and maintain external contacts during a period of upheaval.
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The ceremonies are taking place against the backdrop of a wider regional crisis that has already affected the schedule and the security environment around the burial. The postponement from March to July suggests the authorities were responding to conditions on the ground rather than following a fixed ceremonial timetable. For Iran, the events are both a domestic moment of mourning and a test of how the state manages succession, protocol and international attention at the same time.
What remains unclear is the final attendance list, the full protocol for the Tehran and Mashhad events, and whether any further changes will be made to the schedule. It is also not clear how many invited guests will actually travel, given the report's reference to limited seating and special flight arrangements. The next key developments will be the start of the Tehran ceremonies on July 4 and the burial in Mashhad on July 9.
Jammu and Kashmir former chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti is travelling to Tehran to attend the funeral of Iran's Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The trip has been described as politically significant because Mufti has taken a pro-Iran position during the conflict involving Iran, the United States and Israel. She is also reported to be the only non-Shia political leader from Jammu and Kashmir attending the funeral.
According to the supplied report, Mufti left Srinagar on Thursday afternoon and travelled to New Delhi before boarding a special plane for Tehran. A party leader said the Iranian government had sent a special aircraft for invited guests because flights to Iran are not operating. The same report says Mufti was invited by the office of Mujtaba Khamenei, who is described there as having taken over as Iran's new Supreme leader after his father's killing.
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The visit comes after Mufti had earlier gone to the Iran embassy in New Delhi to offer condolences over the killing of the Iranian leader. The report says she has consistently taken a pro-Iran and anti-United States and Israel stance since the war began. It also says the invitation referred to the historical and strategic ties between Iran and India, underlining the diplomatic sensitivity of the trip.
The funeral is taking place in the context of a wider political and security crisis around Iran. The supplied material says Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a joint US-Israel air strike on February 28, and that he will be laid to rest in Tehran on July 6. A farewell ceremony is also planned for July 3, indicating that the mourning period is being managed as a major state event with international attention.
The attendance of a regional political figure from India adds another layer to the event. The report says Union Minister of State for External Affairs Pabitra Margherita and Bihar governor Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain are also due to travel to Iran as part of the official delegation. That makes the funeral not only a domestic Iranian ceremony but also a moment of diplomatic signalling involving Indian political and official representatives.
What remains unclear from the supplied material is the full size of the guest list, the exact composition of the special flight arrangements, and whether any further Indian political figures will join the delegation. It is also not clear how the visit will be received politically in India, given the contrast between Mufti's position and the central government's neutral stance described in the report. The next developments to watch are the farewell ceremony on July 3 and the burial on July 6 in Tehran.
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