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Iran held a funeral procession for top military commanders and scientists who were killed in this month’s Israeli air strikes, in a public show of defiance against the US and Israel.
Hundreds of thousands of mourners took to the streets of Tehran on Saturday, vowing that the Islamic republic would stand firm in the face of aggression.
The crowd marched from Enghelab Square behind vehicles carrying the caskets of 60 people who were killed in the 12 days of Israeli bombardment, including military figures, nuclear scientists and media workers, as well as women and children.
Banners with pictures of those who died lined the route and the government declared Saturday a public holiday to mark the occasion. The mourners chanted “neither compromise, nor surrender, fight against the US” and trampled on US and Israeli flags.
After the procession some of the bodies will be buried in Tehran’s main cemetery or at two religious shrines, while others will be transported to their hometowns for burial.
Officials including Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and Esmail Ghaani, leader of the elite Revolutionary Guards’ overseas Quds Forces, attended.
Also present was Ali Shamkhani, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was badly wounded in the strikes and leaned on a stick.
But in a break from tradition, Khamenei himself did not make an appearance for the funeral prayers. For decades he has led funeral prayers to mark the deaths of top military and political figures, including Qasem Soleimani, the Guards’ top overseas commander who was killed in a US air strike in 2020, and former president Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a helicopter crash last year.
Khamenei has not appeared in public since June 13, when Israel launched the offensive on Iran, but since then he has addressed the Iranian people in three pre-recorded video messages.
On Thursday in his first comments since the ceasefire took hold, Khamenei claimed “victory” over Israel and the US and said Donald Trump had “exaggerated” the effect of US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
There have been conflicting reports about the extent of damage to Iran’s nuclear capacity following the US bombardments of the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan sites.
A US damage assessment said the attacks had set back Iran’s nuclear programme by months, after Trump’s claims of “obliteration” of Iranian nuclear installations. European intelligence indicated Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile had been distributed to several other locations before the strikes.
On Friday, Trump said he would “without question” consider a new strike on Iran’s nuclear sites if Tehran maintained its capability for high-level uranium enrichment.
Trump also hit back at Khamenei’s comments and said he had prevented Israel from assassinating the Iranian leader.
Araghchi called on Trump to “put aside the disrespectful and unacceptable tone” towards Khamenei and “stop hurting his millions of heartfelt followers” if he was “genuine” about a deal.
Iran’s permanent mission to the UN said the US and Israel’s “open threat to assassinate” Khamenei constituted “a manifest instance of state terrorism”.
Iran’s health ministry has put the death toll from the Israeli military assault at 627, with nearly 4,900 injured.
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