Khamenei | Pakistan

Khamenei laid to rest amid anti-US chants

Braving sweltering heat and calling for revenge, Iranians massed on Thursday for the burial of assassinated supreme leader Ali Khamenei in his hometown of Mashhad. An Israeli strike assassinated Khamenei in late February on the first day of the Middle East war. Thousands of people filled the streets of the eastern city of Mashhad, home to one of the holiest sites of Shia Islam. Footage posted by IRNA showed the procession en route to the Shrine of Imam Reza, where the assassinated leader will be buried. With new hostilities breaking out with the United States even after an accord last month to end the war, at least one fighter jet escorted the plane carrying the late Iranian leader’s coffin to Mashhad. State TV reported that a helicopter would transport the body across the final stretch to the shrine because the main avenue was expected to be crammed with people. The burial will be the final act in a marathon six days of funeral ceremonies, which have allowed people to pay tribute in Tehran, the clerical hub ...

Mourners beat their chests and chanted “revenge, revenge” as thousands gathered in Tehran early on Saturday for a final farewell to assassinated supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei, who ruled Iran for more than three decades, was killed in US-Israeli attacks on February 28 that sparked a regional war. “We have come not for the funeral but for revenge,” a eulogist at the event chanted. “We’re never going to give up your blood, which is the reddest line.” The mourners, some in tears, made their way through strict security towards the courtyard where Khamenei’s coffin was placed for people to pay their respects. “We must rise up and, God willing, avenge the blood of our leader,” Hamidreza Shabani, an 18-year-old student, told AFP. The coffin, wrapped in an Iranian flag, was unveiled on a stage from behind dark blue velvet drapes after recitations from the Quran. It stood on a raised platform accompanied by the coffins of his family members also killed in the US-Israeli attack. Mourners react during a...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir on Friday paid their respects to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated in a US-Israeli strike on February 28. In a statement, PMO said that PM Shehbaz attended the funeral, where he paid “rich tribute” to the assassinated supreme leader. He also expressed solidarity with Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, President Dr Masoud Pezeshkian and the people of Iran in their moment of “national grief”. Following the ceremony, the premier departed for Istanbul for his Turkiye visit. CDF Munir also departed for Pakistan after the ceremony, PTV reported. He was seen off by Iran’s Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni and senior Iranian officials. Khamenei’s body arrived at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla on Friday ahead of his funeral. Apart from PM Shehbaz and CDF Munir, other foreign dignitaries, clerics, officials and mourners also paid their respects as the body lay in state in a vast hall. Photos...

The assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a joint US-Israeli strike has plunged the Islamic Republic into one of the most consequential political transitions since the 1979 revolution, triggering a swift constitutional process to select a new leader while the country grapples with regional escalation and internal uncertainty. Khamenei, who dominated Iran’s political and religious landscape for nearly three decades, was assassinated early Saturday when his high-security residential compound in central Tehran was targeted. Several family members — including his daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and a grandchild — were also killed in the strike. The attack came as Israel and the US launched coordinated strikes across multiple Iranian cities, including Tehran, reportedly killing more than 200 people, according to health officials. The escalation followed three rounds of indirect nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington — most recently in Geneva on Thursday — that failed to produc...

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday accused US President Donald Trump of being responsible for “casualties” during a protest wave in the country that rights groups said was met with a deadly crackdown. “We hold the American president guilty for the casualties, damages and accusations he has levelled against the Iranian nation,” he told a crowd of supporters during an address marking a religious holiday. “This was an American conspiracy,” Khamenei said, adding that “America’s goal is to swallow Iran … the goal is to put Iran back under military, political and economic domination”. “By God’s grace, the Iranian nation must break the back of the seditionists just as it broke the back of the sedition,” he said. “We do not intend to lead the country to war, but we will not spare domestic criminals,” he added, saying that “international criminals” were “worse” and would also not be spared punishment. Iranian authorities have blamed the United States for fuelling a “terrorist operation” that they...

TEHRAN: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed on Saturday Tehran “will not yield” following US President Donald Trump’s threat to aid protesters, while warning that domestic “rioters” must be “put in their place” amid swelling unrest over soaring inflation. Speaking in a recorded television appearance marking a holiday, Ayatollah Khamenei addressed the mounting crisis facing Iran’s leadership. He adopted a dual approach to the demonstrations that have flared across more than two dozen cities since Sunday, acknowledging legitimate economic grievances while drawing a hard line against political dissent. “We will speak with the protesters, but talking to rioters is useless,” Khamenei said. “Rioters should be put in their place.” Khamenei’s defiance came just one day after Trump warned that the US was “locked and loaded and ready to go” regarding the situation in Iran. Although Trump did not specify what action he might take, the threat adds to the pressure on Tehran following US and Israeli airstrik...

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei • In first appearance since truce with Israel, supreme leader hails ‘slap’ on the face of America • Hegseth insists strikes on N-facilities were successful • Iran’s legislature clears bill to suspend cooperation with IAEA TEHRAN / WASHIN­GTON: Even after Iran’s supreme leader accused President Donald Trump of exaggerating the impact of US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, Washington continued to insist on the success of its actions, claiming that there was no evidence Tehran had been able to move any of its highly enriched uranium. In his first public appearance since a ceasefire in the war with Israel took hold, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hailed what he termed a “victory” over Israel, vowing never to yield to US pressure and insisting that the US had been dealt a humiliating “slap”. “The American president exaggerated events in unusual ways, and it turned out that he needed this exaggeration,” Khamenei said, rejecting US claims Iran’s nuclear programme had been set back by decades. The str...

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that abandoning uranium enrichment was “100 per cent” against the country’s interests, rejecting a central US demand in talks to resolve a decades-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. The US proposal for a new nuclear deal was presented to Iran on Saturday by Oman, which has mediated talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff. After five rounds of talks, several hard-to-bridge issues remain, including Iran’s insistence on maintaining uranium enrichment on its soil and Tehran’s refusal to ship abroad its entire existing stockpile of highly enriched uranium — possible raw material for nuclear bombs. Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters of state, said nothing about halting the talks, but said the US proposal “contradicts our nation’s belief in self-reliance and the principle of ‘We Can’”. “Uranium enrichment is the key to our nuclear programme and the enemies h...

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that nuclear talks with the United States were unlikely to yield any results, amid a diplomatic standoff over the Islamic republic’s enrichment activities. “We don’t think it will lead to any outcome. We don’t know what will happen,” said Khamenei during a speech, adding that denying Iran’s right to enrich uranium was “a big mistake”. Iran and the US have held four rounds of Omani-mediated nuclear talks since April 12, the highest-level contact between the two foes since Washington abandoned the 2015 nuclear accord. The two sides had confirmed plans to hold another round of discussions during the latest meeting on May 11, which Tehran described as “difficult but useful”, while a US official said Washington was “encouraged”. Iran currently enriches uranium to 60per cent, far above the 3.67pc limit set in the 2015 deal but below the 90pc needed for a nuclear warhead. Western countries, including the US, have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire ato...

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Donald Trump on Saturday of lying when the US president said during his Gulf tour this week that he wanted peace in the region. On the contrary, said Khamenei, the United States uses its power to give “10-ton bombs to the Zionist (Israeli) regime to drop on the heads of Gaza’s children”. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after departing the United Arab Emirates on Friday that Iran had to move quickly on a US proposal for its nuclear programme or “something bad’s going to happen”. Earlier on Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Trump speaks about peace while simultaneously making threats. “Which should we believe?” Pezeshkian said at a naval event in Tehran. “On the one hand, he speaks of peace and on the other, he threatens with the most advanced tools of mass killing.” Tehran would continue Iran-US nuclear talks but is not afraid of threats. “We are not seeking war,” Pezeshkian said. His remarks, said Khamenei, “aren’t even worth resp...