The late Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, will be laid to rest in the holy city of Mashhad.
The development was confirmed on Tuesday in a report by the Fars news agency.
Khamenei, who ruled Iran for 36 years, was reportedly killed on Saturday at the age of 86 during a series of attacks attributed to the United States and Israeli forces.
Sources indicate that the late leader, a native of Mashhad — Iran’s second-largest city — will be buried there, close to where his father is interred at the revered Imam Reza shrine.
Ahead of the burial, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced via their Telegram channel that a “large farewell ceremony” would be held in Tehran. However, no official date has yet been announced for the interment.
Following Khamenei’s death, authority was temporarily transferred to a three-member interim council comprising the president, the head of the judiciary and a cleric from the Guardian Council. The arrangement will remain in place until the Assembly of Experts selects a successor.
Fars, quoting an official familiar with the process, reported that the Assembly of Experts’ final meeting may be delayed until after the burial for security reasons.
Meanwhile, the United States has denied involvement in the operation that led to Khamenei’s death. Speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee, senior Pentagon official Elbridge Colby stated that the strike was carried out by Israel and was not linked to any US military mission.
Colby clarified that the action was an Israeli-led operation and not part of Washington’s regional campaign. He made the remarks in response to questions from lawmakers about whether the United States was pursuing regime change in Iran, stressing that such an objective was not driving American policy.