Iran will bury its slain supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the holy city of Mashhad, according to the Fars News Agency.
Khamenei, who led the Islamic Republic for 36 years, was killed at the age of 86 during a wave of United States and Israeli attacks, Iranian authorities confirmed.
He will be laid to rest in Mashhad — Iran’s second-largest city and his birthplace — where his father is buried at the revered Imam Reza shrine.
Before the burial, a “large farewell ceremony” will take place in the capital, Tehran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement posted on its Telegram channel.
However, officials have not disclosed the date for the burial.
The announcement comes amid heightened tensions and security concerns following coordinated strikes that Iranian media attributed to US-Israeli forces.
Following Khamenei’s death, state media reported that power has been temporarily handed to a three-man interim council pending the election of a new supreme leader by the Assembly of Experts.
The interim body comprises the president, the head of the judiciary, and a jurist drawn from the Guardian Council, which oversees legislation and vets electoral candidates.
Fars, citing an official familiar with the process, reported that “for security reasons, the assembly’s final meeting could be postponed until after Khamenei’s burial.”
Iranian media also reported that the building housing the 88-member Assembly of Experts in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, was struck during the attacks.
Its main headquarters in Tehran was reportedly hit a day earlier.
Authorities have yet to provide a detailed damage assessment or confirm whether any casualties were recorded at the affected facilities.
