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Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was conspicuously absent from his father’s funeral, as senior regime figures joined thousands paying their respects to the late ayatollah on Sunday.<\/b><\/p>\n
Ali Khamenei’s other three sons – Masoud, Mostafa and Meysam – all attended the service on Sunday, alongside officials including President Masoud Pezeshkian and Revolutionary Guards chief Ahmad Vahidi.<\/p>\n
Speculation about Mojtaba’s condition – fuelled by rumours he was wounded in the same US-Israel air strikes that killed his father – has continued as he has not appeared in public since his appointment in early March.<\/p>\n
The elder Khamenei ruled the Islamic republic from 1989 until his death in February.<\/p>\n
Official funeral proceedings for the late supreme leader began on Friday, with events planned across Iran and Iraq over the coming week.<\/p>\n
Iranian authorities say 12-20 million people are expected to attend the ceremonies, which they are calling the “funeral of the century”.<\/p>\n
Khamenei’s body is currently lying in state at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla religious complex, with a funeral service led by prominent Shia cleric Jafar Sobhani, a 97-year-old scholar who teaches at seminaries in the holy city of Qom. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n