Iranians to bid farewell to Khamenei as Israel’s Katz warns successor will be targeted

DUBAI — Iranians are set to gather in Tehran on March 4 to pay their last respects to late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to a senior official quoted by state media, as regional tensions intensify following his reported killing.

Hojjatoleslam Mahmoudi, head of Iran’s Islamic Propagation Council, said the farewell ceremony will run for three days. The schedule for the funeral procession will be announced at a later time.

State media reported that members of the public may view Khamenei’s body beginning at 10 p.m. local time at the Imam Khomeini Prayer Hall in Tehran.

“The Mosalla (prayer hall) will receive visitors, and the people can attend and take part in the farewell ceremony,” Mahmoudi said in remarks carried by Iranian outlets.

Khamenei, who led Iran for 36 years, was killed on February 28 at the age of 86. Iranian state media said he died during a wave of air strikes carried out by Israel and the United States.

Katz warns successor will be targeted

Amid preparations for the funeral, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz issued a warning regarding Khamenei’s successor.

“Any leader selected by the Iranian terror regime to continue leading the plan for Israel’s destruction, threatening the United States, the free world and countries in the region, and suppressing the Iranian people, will be a certain target for assassination,” Katz said in a post on X.

“It does not matter what his name is or where he hides,” he added.

Katz further stated that Israel would continue coordinated action with Washington. “We will continue to act with full force, together with our American partners, to dismantle the regime’s capabilities and create the conditions for the Iranian people to overthrow and replace it,” he said.

There was no immediate official response from Tehran to Katz’s remarks.

Burial planned in Mashhad

The Fars News Agency reported that Khamenei will be buried in the holy city of Mashhad, his birthplace and Iran’s second-largest city. His father is buried at the Imam Reza shrine, one of the country’s most important religious sites.

Before the burial, a “large farewell ceremony” will be held in Tehran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on its official Telegram account. No burial date has been announced.

Interim leadership in place

Following Khamenei’s death, authority has been transferred to a three-member interim council until the Assembly of Experts elects a successor.

The interim council includes the president, the head of the judiciary, and a jurist from the Guardian Council, which oversees legislation and vets electoral candidates.

According to Fars, citing an official familiar with the process, the assembly’s final meeting could be postponed for security reasons 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 by US-Israeli attacks, along with its main headquarters in the capital a day earlier.