The funeral procession for Iran's late supreme leader Ali Khamenei began in Tehran on Monday, state television reported, as authorities prepared for crowds that could rival those that turned out for his predecessor nearly four decades ago.
The ceremonies offer Iran an opportunity to project resilience after five weeks of war with the United States and Israel, while attention remains focused on Khamenei's successor, his son Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since taking power.
After lying in state for two days at Tehran's Grand Mosalla religious complex, the body of Khamenei -- who was killed on the first day of the Middle East war on February 28 -- began its journey through the capital accompanied by massive crowds of mourners, state broadcaster IRIB reported.
Mourners gathered in Imam Hussein Square in eastern Tehran and hanged an effigy of US President Donald Trump, according to state media.
Authorities are hoping to avoid a repeat of the chaos that marred the 1989 funeral of Khamenei's predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which drew an estimated 10 million people, according to state news agency IRNA.
Crowd surges in Khomeini's funeral killed more than 10 people and injured over 10,000.
Thousands had filled the Grand Mosalla on Sunday to pay their respects to Khamenei and his four family members, all killed on February 28 in Israeli airstrikes based on US intelligence.
Massive concrete walls separated the public from the coffin to prevent stampedes.
It is unclear what level of access and proximity the public will have during the procession, but authorities are mindful that in 1989 they were forced to use a helicopter to transport Khomeini for burial after mourners stormed his vehicle, causing his burial shroud to tear and his body to fall to the ground.
As well as laying Khamenei -- who ruled the Islamic republic for more than three-and-a-half decades -- to rest, the funerals are a chance for Iran's authorities to burnish their resilience after five weeks at war with Israel and the United States.
‘Iran will never stop pursuing leader’s assassins’
The Commander of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Army, Major General Amir Hatami, declared that those who assassinated the Leader of the Islamic Revolution must know that the Iranian nation and its forces will not relent in holding them accountable.
General Hatami said the late Leader had charted “a path of honour, dignity, independence and pride,” adding he had prepared all necessary grounds for the nation to follow it.
The army chief said the Armed Forces had been honoured to serve under Ayatollah Khamenei and would continue with “strength and absolute determination” to follow the new Leader of the Islamic Revolution and Commander-in-Chief, Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, without hesitation.
Hatami also recalled a moment of paying respects to the new leader, saying, “The day I had the honour to pay respects to our dear Imam [Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei], I told him that those who committed this crime [the assassination of the martyred Leader] should know that the Iranian nation and all of us will not let them get away with it.”
“This is a definite matter, and we will pursue it,” Hatami emphasized.