120 Iraqi MPs called for Khamenei procession, Iran reports

Shafaq News- Baghdad

A total of 120 Iraqi lawmakers sent letters requesting that Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei be carried in Iraq during his funeral ceremonies, Iranian funeral committee official Ali Akbar Pourjamshidian said on Thursday.

The US and Israel assassinated Khamenei on February 28 during the opening day of their airstrikes on Iran. Tehran has announced funeral ceremonies beginning in the Iranian capital, followed by Qom on July 7, Iraq on July 8, and burial in Mashhad on July 9.

Pourjamshidian told Al-Alam TV that an official reception for Khamenei’s body and family will be held at either Baghdad or Najaf airport, attended by Iraq’s Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi and other officials. An Iraqi committee was also formed under the prime minister’s supervision to oversee the arrangements, and preparations are “very high-level.”

More than one million people have registered to take part in the funeral ceremonies inside Iran, according to Pourjamshidian, while officials from more than 45 countries, including heads of state and government, foreign ministers, and religious figures, have announced they will attend Friday’s ceremony in Tehran.

Earlier, Muhannad Al-Aqabi, director of the Popular Mobilization Forces’ General Directorate of Media, confirmed that Iraq’s government had requested an official procession for Khamenei as a state event coordinated with political forces and relevant institutions. Government spokesperson Haider Al-Aboudi later said Baghdad had approved Iran’s request to hold the official procession in Iraq on July 8.

The Higher Committee organizing the procession announced that the Iraq leg would be limited to Najaf and Karbala, excluding Baghdad because Iraq has only 24 hours to host the ceremonies.