The funeral for Iran's ​late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will begin in Tehran on July 4 and conclude with his burial in his hometown, the northeastern holy city of Mashhad, â on July 9, state media reported on Saturday.
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Khamenei was killed on the first day of Israeli and U.S. airstrikes against Iran on February 28. The 86-year-old cleric had been at the helm of the â Islamic Republic for 36 ​years.
The â funeral arrangements will include ceremonies on July 7 in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, â media said.
Islamic law requires the deceased to be buried ​as â soon as possible, and ideally ‌within 24 hours of death, but exceptions are allowed, for example in time of war.
During his rule, Khamenei built ‌Iran into a powerful anti-U.S. force, spreading ‌its military sway across the Middle East through proxy forces such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, while using an iron fist to crush outbreaks of â unrest at home.
Khamenei remained a strong critic of the United States throughout his rule, while successive U.S. administrations tried unsuccessfully to resolve a dispute with Iran over its nuclear programme.
The airstrike that killed him pulverised his central Tehran compound. His 56-year-old son Mojtaba, who also lost his wife in the ‌airstrike and was himself injured, succeeded his father ​as Supreme Leader but has not been seen in public since the conflict broke out.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said ‌on Saturday that Iran and the â United States had agreed on a framework for â a peace deal after more than three months of war and are ‌expected to sign the ​initial deal in the ‌next 24 hours.
