Pakistan says PM Sharif, a key US-Iran mediator, will attend Khamenei funeral ceremony

Russia, China, India also confirm sending senior officials; Iran claims dignitaries from about 100 countries coming, reportedly including the presidents of Tajikistan and Georgia

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a key mediator in US-Iran peace talks, is expected to attend a funeral ceremony for Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei over the weekend, alongside senior officials from Russia, China, India and other countries.

“The Prime Minister, Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, will go to Iran and Turkey from 3-5 July… he will go to Iran first for (the) supreme leader’s funeral,” Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi told reporters on Thursday.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei was quoted in state media as saying “dignitaries, heads of state, parliament speakers, foreign ministers or special envoys” from about 100 countries would come to Iran for a Friday afternoon ceremony ahead of a cross-country procession.

Besides Sharif, other heads of state in attendance will be Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon and Georgian President Mikheil Kavelashvili, according to Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency.

Meanwhile, Russia said Thursday that it would send former president Dmitry Medvedev, who is currently the deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council.

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The Chinese foreign ministry also announced it would send He Wei, the vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top lawmaking body.

And India’s foreign ministry said it would send Bihar Governor Syed Ata Hasnaim and Deputy Foreign Minister Pabitra Margherita to Iran to stress “the importance of civilizational ties, including people-to-people connection, between the two countries, providing a robust foundation to political and economic engagements.”

Khamenei’s public funeral will begin on Friday, with his body lying in state at the colossal complex in central Tehran that hosts major Friday prayers, official ceremonies and religious gatherings.

The procession will end on July 9 in the northeastern holy city of Mashhad, Khamenei’s hometown, where he will be buried, Iranian state media has reported.

Khamenei became the Islamic Republic’s second supreme leader in 1989 and oversaw the expansion of its nuclear program and terrorist proxy network.

He and other Iranian supreme leaders were sworn to destroy Israel. While Khamenei purportedly banned nuclear arms by religious decree, Iran under his leadership amassed some 10 nuclear bombs’ worth of uranium enriched to levels with no peaceful application.

Khamenei was killed on February 28 in the opening strikes of the US-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran. He was succeeded days later by his son Mojtaba, who was injured in the strikes and has not been seen in public since.

The bombing campaign sought to destabilize Iran’s leadership and destroy its ballistic missile and nuclear programs. The fighting entered a truce on April 8, and the US and Iran are engaged in peace talks based on a memorandum of understanding reached last month.

Israel is not a party to the negotiations or the understanding, and Israeli officials have criticized the MOU for failing to secure concrete concessions from Iran on its nuclear program.

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