Video shows men who attended Khamenei's funeral and the man who didn't

The strictly choreographed funeral of Iran's former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has presented a rare insight into the image Tehran wants to project to the world and the men they see as central to it.

Over the weekend, three of Khamenei's sons, Mostafa, Meysam and Masoud, were shown on State TV praying behind their father's coffin in the courtyard of Tehran's Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla.

There were other key figures in Iran's political leadership among the sea of mourners, but one man was noticeably absent from the spectacle: Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.

The mysterious 56-year-old cleric has not been seen since the start of the war, giving rise to a flurry of rumours about his health and his capacity to lead.

The younger Khamenei is understood to have been injured in the same attack that killed his wife, sister and father, and some Iran watchers have speculated his condition may be the reason he failed to attend.

Ahead of the event, analysts told the ABC that Mojtaba Khamenei remains important as a legitimising figure even if he is not really running Iran in the day-to-day sense.

From videos and photos taken of the July 4 event, this is what we have learnt about the version of power Tehran wants to show the international community and the people who actually hold it.

The visuals Iran wants you to see

Khamenei's funeral was always going to be an elaborate affair, one intended to send a message of defiance to Tehran's enemies.

Having ruled Iran from 1989 until his death in February during the opening strikes of the US and Israel's war on Iran, the Ayatollah was reviled by critics and Washington.

But he died a martyr in the eyes of regime loyalists.

The delay to Khamenei's burial marked a break from the Islamic custom that requires a body to be ritually washed and buried as soon as possible.

July 4 ushered in a week-long series of funeral processions for the late leader. The date coincided with America's Independence Day, which this year fell on the 250th anniversary of the creation of the United States.

Analysts believe this week's events will be used to send a message that the US and Israel's attempt to break the Islamic Republic has failed despite months of war and targeted assassinations of political and military figures inside Iran.

"[The visuals from the funeral are] really significant for both domestic and international audiences," said Dara Conduit, an author and Middle East analyst from the University of Melbourne.

"It's important domestically because it demonstrates to the Iranian population that this regime has a support base, that it is legitimate."

Tehran was sending a similar message internationally, she said, with US President Donald Trump inadvertently playing into the hands of Iran's leadership when he commented on photos of Iranians at the funeral.

Mr Trump told news outlet Axios that he was surprised to see some Iranians crying, saying he thought people hated Khamenei.

"Maybe it's fake tears," he said.

Representatives and dignitaries from more than 100 countries are expected to attend the commemorations, according to foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei, per IRNA.

Dr Conduit said Tehran would likely lean into the internationalism of this event, and seek to promote the regime's religious aspects and intellectual foundations.

"This funeral gives them the opportunity to do all those things," she said.

Faces in the crowd

As security forces carried Khamenei's coffin overhead through the Grand Mosalla, some important faces were spotted among the sea of mourners.

State TV showed Mostafa, Meysam and Masoud sobbing as they watched a group of men carry their father's coffin, draped in the Iranian flag, through the courtyard and onto a raised platform.

The three men are rarely seen in public, and the funeral was their first public appearance together since the US-Israel-Iran war.

"The visual aspects of authoritarian regimes are fascinating because they say so much through these events," Dr Conduit said.

Their attendance was crucial to the version of power Tehran wanted the world to see, one of a regime with the backing of the former leader's family.

Video taken from a different angle shows the three men standing in a line with other key figures directly behind Khamenei's coffin, denoting their importance.

So where was the fourth brother, Mojtaba Khamenei?

Iranian officials have explained away his absence with security concerns, given the continued threats to his life. Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, has previously said the supreme leader was on a target list.

"The main barometer is going to be whether we see him lead the funeral prayers for his father on Thursday," said Rodger Shanahan, a Middle East security analyst and visiting fellow at the National Security College, ANU.

The six-day public funeral includes events in Najaf and Karbala in Iraq and will culminate with the burial of the Ayatollah at the Imam Reza shrine in the holy city of Mashhad on June 9.

"He may well not appear [before then], but if he doesn't appear at the final set of prayers, that would be more telling," Dr Shanahan said.

"If you are going to be the supreme leader for the new generation, then at some point you obviously have to appear in public before the country's population, and the funeral of your father would be the most appropriate place to do that.

"So if he doesn't, it probably signals that he's physically weaker than many people give him credit for."

In the same line behind Ayatollah Khamenei's coffin were three other important political figures: President Masoud Pezeshkian, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and chief justice of the Supreme Court, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei.

Mr Pezeshkian was one of just three men who formed part of the interim leadership council after Khamenei's death in February, while Mr Qalibaf is a former commander of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who now acts as chief negotiator in the Iran-US deal.

Mr Mohseni-Ejei is a senior cleric who rights groups have accused of suppressing popular protests and overseeing widespread human rights violations. He was re-appointed as head of the judiciary this week.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was Iran's president from 2005 to 2013 and has not been seen in public for months, was also filmed walking among the mourners.

What the regime didn't want shown

Further back in the crowd was another regime figure who has attracted a great deal of scrutiny since the war began.

State TV showed IRGC general Ahmad Vahidi clad in black and moving through the throng of mourners surrounded by cameras and what appeared to be security.

The apparatus around him was a clear indication of his importance.

Andreas Krieg, associate professor at King's College London's School of Security, previously told the ABC that Mr Vahidi is "either the single most powerful man in Iran at present or, at minimum, the most powerful operational figure inside a collective IRGC-led ruling core".

While Tehran is seeking to project an image of power that includes its civilian government, it is Mr Vahidi and the military-security circle around him that appears to have operational authority inside the country, analysts said.

It has been reported that Vahidi "emerged from hiding" to attend the funeral, having avoided being seen publicly since the war began.

Videos and photos show thousands of people streaming through the streets of Tehran in blistering heat for the funeral processions.

But that is not necessarily indicative of the regime's popularity, Dr Conduit said.

She believed Iranians would be attending the carefully arranged funeral procession "for a variety of reasons" and some "may not support the regime at all".

"A lot of them probably feel they have to turn out. It's important for us to understand this in the context and the pageantry of authoritarianism,"

she said.

Residents the ABC spoke to inside Tehran had mixed feelings about Iran's leadership and the spectacle unfolding in their country while the regime was in talks with the United States on a peace agreement.

The two sides have already agreed to a memorandum of understanding that gives them a 60-day timeline to arrive at a deal, with the option of a mutually agreed-upon extension.

A woman in her 40s who lives in Tehran and whose name has been withheld to protect her identity said the public rejected Mojtaba Khamenei's leadership.

"I'm absolutely certain that the son is even worse than the father because he was raised by him," she told the ABC.

"People are exhausted. They can no longer tolerate someone even more corrupt, more ruthless, more criminal taking power. They simply do not accept him."

Even so, the regime will be using the funeral to send a different message, one of leadership stability and resilience in the face of US and Israeli interference.