At the entrance to the vast religious complex where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s body is set to lie in state from Saturday, dozens were hard at work under an intense heatwave to prepare for the assassinated supreme leader’s grand funeral. Security was on high alert ahead of the start of the funerary activities for Iran’s ruler for three decades, with dozens of personnel stationed at the main entrance to the Grand Mosalla, methodically stopping each car in the vicinity. Passengers must present a special permit to enter the premises, which have yet to be opened to the public. A man uses a hose during preparations for a funeral ceremony for Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated on February 28 in Israeli and US airstrikes, at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla, in Tehran, Iran on July 2, 2026. — Reuters AFP obtained special access on Thursday, as a handful of curious bystanders watched the preparations from just outside the complex. Within, the walls were draped in massive portraits of ...