Masses accompany Khamenei funeral procession through Tehran as throngs chant for revenge

TEHRAN — A sea of mourners dressed in black flooded into Iran’s capital Monday for a procession as part of the funeral of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with throngs of people calling for the death of US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Khamenei’s flag-draped coffin, and those of members of his family killed in a February 28 airstrike at the start of the war launched by Israel and the United States, sat on board a truck decorated to resemble the ornamental grating that surrounds the shrine of an imam. The massive turnout, encouraged by Iran’s theocracy as a sign of strength, came as it negotiates with the US over a permanent end to the war that killed the 86-year-old cleric who ruled Iran for decades.

Helicopter images aired on Iranian state television showed a huge crowd stretching from Tehran’s Azadi Square for miles down a multilane street of the same name.

The crowd appeared to be larger than the one that turned out for the 2020 procession for the late Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force Gen. Qassem Solemani, which drew over 1 million people.

Authorities offered no immediate crowd count as the truck, covered in flower petals, crept down the street.

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“Today that we are here for the funeral for our leader, it’s a very tough day,” mourner Fatima Hassan said. “We are not here to say goodbye to him, we are here for revenge. And we will take revenge.”

An effigy of Trump being hanged was seen along the funeral procession’s route.

Mourners reached out to touch the truck, and some threw scarves and other items for attendants to brush against the coffin, a common practice in Iran seen as a blessing. Attendants, some on the ladders of firetrucks, sprayed misted water across the crowds to cool them in the heat.

Authorities appeared concerned about the dangers of having a large crowd alongside the procession, with officials on loudspeakers urging the public to walk slowly, not to push and to stay to the edges of the street.

Authorities are hoping to avoid a repeat of the chaos that marred the 1989 funeral of Khamenei’s predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which drew an estimated 10 million people, according to state news agency IRNA.

Crowd surges during Khomeini’s farewell killed more than 10 people and injured over 10,000.

It is unclear what level of access and proximity the public will eventually have during Monday’s procession, but authorities are mindful that in 1989 they were forced to use a helicopter to transport Khomeini for burial after mourners stormed his vehicle, causing his burial shroud to tear and his body to fall to the ground.

“If I am to compare this ceremony to that one, I can say they are not different at all. But the crowd this time seems more enthusiastic,” said Gholamreza Khanbabaei, 58, attending the procession.

Tehran’s airspace was closed on Monday as the country stood still to remember the former leader.

The coffins will be taken through the streets of Tehran on a 12-hour journey to Mehrabad International Airport, said IRGC Gen. Hasan Hasanzadeh, who is overseeing the procession.

Authorities have shut down streets, airspace and daily life for the mourning, which began Saturday and will end Thursday as Khamenei is buried at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, his birthplace.

“This is the last time I am seeing him,” said a weeping Maryam Alizadeh. “Our generation lived with him for decades.”

Former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was seen attending the procession, according to local media.

Calls for Trump’s death grow as funeral goes on

As the funeral has gone on, however, there have increasingly been calls from mourners to avenge Khamenei’s death. Mourners and the signs they carry have called for the killing of both Trump and Netanyahu. Such signs were seen again Monday along the procession’s route, with one effigy of Trump being hanged.

As they passed under a bridge mourners hurled stones at a billboard hung from above showing Trump with a bullet aimed at his head.

“The US killed our father,” it read. “We won’t let you go!”

Mourners at Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s funeral in Iran throw stones at a billboard of U.S. President Donald Trump while chanting, “America is the Great Satan.” pic.twitter.com/rlTa1HPWPo

— Faytuks Network (@FaytuksNetwork) July 6, 2026

“We are here to show that his path will continue, and every single one of these people will continue down his path with clenched fists and soon we will certainly avenge his death against the US and Israel,” said mourner Sahar Zaraatgar.

US federal authorities have been tracking Iranian threats against Trump and other administration officials for years, stemming from Trump’s ordering the 2020 killing of Soleimani, who led the elite Quds Force.

Iran has repeatedly denied plotting to kill Trump, though hardline propaganda footage long has suggested Trump was in Tehran’s crosshairs.

Mourners marched through the streets waving the flags of Iran and the Tehran-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, as well as red flags symbolising revenge.

Katz vows same fate for future Iranian leaders

As Iranian chanted for revenge, Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed that any future Iranian leaders who try to harm Israel will face the same fate as him.

Khamenei, Katz said, “was assassinated by Israel because he set in motion and led the plan to destroy Israel.”

“The assassin was assassinated,” he said. “Any Iranian leader who tries to push plans to destroy Israel again will also be thwarted.”

He said that calls from funeral-goers for Iran to take revenge against Trump “are a disgrace and indicate the true nature of the ayatollah regime.”

Katz stressed that although the US-Israeli war on Iran “removed the immediate threat of Israel’s destruction and significantly damaged Iran’s strategic capabilities,” Jerusalem remains on alert and is “prepared to once again defend itself on its own, at any time and against any threat.”

Days earlier, Katz made headlines in Iran for saying that the country’s current Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was “marked for death.”

The younger Khamenei has not been seen in public since he was injured, and his father, wife, and son were killed in the opening strikes of the war. According to Sunday reports, Iranian security officials rejected his request to attend his father’s funeral ceremonies, fearing Israeli assassination.