Tehran streets were tightly controlled, with military and police vehicles lining the major roads and police and members of the black-shirted volunteer Basij paramilitary force patrolling on motorbikes. Iran warned the United States and Israel against any attacks during the funeral.
After the coffins arrived on Friday, borne high across the upraised hands of a waiting crowd, they were laid in the prayer hall on a white, stepped dais before a high, intricately tiled, arched recess, flanked by national and black mourning flags.
A black turban, worn by clerics claiming descent from Islam’s Prophet Mohammed, lay on the coffin on a folded chequered scarf, a symbol in Iran of militant revolutionary ideals and solidarity with Palestinians.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Chinese National People’s Congress deputy head He Wei, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Iraqi President Nizar Amedi were among the foreign leaders and officials attending.
Families of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and senior commander Imad Mughniyeh, close Lebanese allies of Iran killed in Israeli strikes, attended the ceremony.
Iran‘s own political leaders – the president, parliament speaker, foreign minister and others – filed in to weep and pray on Friday morning. A group of generals stood saluting in front of the coffin. Among them was the new Revolutionary Guards head Ahmad Vahidi, having not appeared in public since his appointment for fear of assassination.
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