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Iran\u2019s top officials and brothers of the new supreme leader emerged into public view Sunday to attend funeral prayers for\u00a0Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Their appearance signaled confidence in their safety as Iran pushes back on U.S. demands in negotiations to permanently\u00a0end the war.<\/p>\n
Crowds of hundreds of thousands chanted \u201cDeath to America\u201d and \u201cDeath to Israel,\u201d as they called for revenge over the Feb. 28 attack that killed the 86-year-old supreme leader and other top officials, triggering the war. Some hard-liners called for the assassination of U.S. President\u00a0Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s new supreme leader,\u00a0Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has yet to make an appearance in the funeral ceremonies, which are unfolding over several days. He is believed to be in hiding after reportedly being wounded in the airstrike that killed his father.<\/p>\n
At the height of the war, before an April ceasefire, Israel had targeted top leaders, in at least one case\u00a0likely using their public appearance\u00a0to fix their position. It has also threatened to kill the younger Khamenei.<\/p>\n
The U.S. is meanwhile pressing ahead with negotiations with Iran aimed at fully reopening the\u00a0Strait of Hormuz\u00a0and rolling back its disputed nuclear program.<\/p>\n
Ziba Naderi, a 42-year-old nurse attending the funeral Sunday, said Iran needed to heed Mojtaba Khamenei\u2019s commands. \u201cI heard the call for revenge, but our leader should say what we need to do,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we must listen to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani, a 97-year-old Shiite cleric, led the prayers at Tehran\u2019s Grand Mosalla for the late Khamenei his family members killed in the strike.<\/p>\n
On hand were Khamenei\u2019s other sons, Masoud, Meysam and Mostafa, who haven\u2019t been seen since the war. Revolutionary Guard head Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, who was photographed for\u00a0the first time since the war on Thursday, could be seen in the crowd by Associated Press journalists, flanked by plainclothes security forces and wearing a black baseball cap.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s President Masoud Pezeshkian, Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf \u2014\u00a0who has led the negotiations\u00a0with the U.S. \u2014 and Esmail Qaani, who leads the elite Quds Force of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also attended.<\/p>\n
The crowd had grown from the day before. Mourners dressed in black carried banners and flags honoring Khamenei.<\/p>\n
Posters and graffiti at the Grand Mosalla called for the killing of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister\u00a0Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy is the biggest bastard in the world still alive?\u201d Mohammad Rasouli, a poet who emceed the event before the prayers, said to the crowd over loudspeakers, referring to Trump. \u201cThe world is no longer a good place\u201d for Trump, he added as the crowd cheered.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came here to shout and seek revenge,\u201d said Gholamreza Sabooni, a 29-year-old man who works in a grocery. \u201cThey killed our imam, we should kill their leader, Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. president was giving a speech at the same time across the world in Washington, D.C., for\u00a0the 250th anniversary of America\u2019s founding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had tremendous success,\u201d Trump said about the U.S. military. \u201cYou look at Venezuela, you look at Iran. We wiped it out, wiped out their military.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. federal authorities have been tracking Iranian threats against Trump and other administration officials for years. That stems from Trump ordering the 2020\u00a0killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who had led the Quds Force. Iran repeatedly has denied plotting to kill Trump, though hard-line propaganda footage long has\u00a0suggested Trump was in Tehran\u2019s crosshairs.<\/p>\n
Trump meanwhile\u00a0promised to destroy Iran\u2019s very civilization\u00a0during the war, among other threats.<\/p>\n
Khamenei\u2019s body will be transported to cities in Iran and neighboring Iraq, with authorities planning to drive his casket and others through the streets of Tehran on Monday. Authorities have shut down streets, airspace and daily life for the mourning, which will end Thursday as he is buried at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Khamenei\u2019s place of birth.<\/p>\n
Authorities offered no attendance count for the event Saturday and Sunday. Other cities across Iran also held mourning ceremonies.<\/p>\n
Talks over reaching a permanent end to the war appear to be on hold until the end of the funeral.<\/p>\n
The funeral was in part a show of unity and defiance as Iran\u00a0demands a measure of control\u00a0over the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for global energy that it shut down during the war. The U.S. has rejected those demands, and the sides are divided on other key issues, including\u00a0the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah\u00a0in Lebanon and Iran\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n
The U.S. assisted 70 transits of the Strait of Hormuz over the past 72 hours, including 18 on Saturday, a multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Sunday. It called traffic steady along routes near Oman and Iran but still below prewar levels. The threat level remained \u201csubstantial\u201d and mine clearance and surveying work continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur foreign policy should not be shaped in a way that allows our martyred leader\u2019s blood to be dishonored and other countries can afford to do such things, without any serious response from our government and diplomatic system,\u201d mourner Mohammad Reza Sharifi said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Iranians #demand #revenge #funeral #ceremonies #supreme #leader #killed #war<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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