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The death of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has marked a historic turning point for the Islamic Republic. In this special report from Tehran, India Today brings exclusive on-ground coverage of Khamenei's massive state funeral, attended by millions of mourners and delegations from nearly 100 countries
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00:12Hello and welcome to the special broadcast from Tehran.
00:16Iran was in mourning for four months.
00:19Today that silence and that silent mourning has given way to spectacle.
00:25Behind me is a city that is in mourning.
00:28Thousands in the streets of Tehran turning the funeral service and ceremony
00:35of late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei into a show of strength.
00:41The message much bigger than that.
00:44Iran is sending a strong message to Iranians, to Israel,
00:49to the United States of America and to the world.
00:52That it stands strong, it stands tall.
00:55Here is how the day unfolded.
01:04It is an end of an era.
01:07A final farewell to Iran's most powerful leader.
01:12Millions have converged from Tehran to mourn former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
01:19who was killed on the opening day of the U.S.-Israel airstrikes on Iran on February 28.
01:31Moners queued for hours to pay their last respects as Khamenei's body lay in the state at Tehran's grand mashallah.
01:47Chants of revenge, revenge and death to America rang out across the capital.
01:57As grief mixed with defiance for the man who had led the Islamic Republic for 37 years.
02:09The week-long farewell began with Khamenei lying in state in Tehran, allowing the public to pay their final respects.
02:16On July 7, the ceremonies move to the holy city of Qom for state and religious rites.
02:24A day later, tributes will be held at the revered Imam Hussain Shrine in Karbala, Iraq.
02:30The final journey ends on July 9, when Khamenei will be laid to rest at the Imam Reza Shrine in
02:38Mashhad, Iran's holiest shrine.
02:44Iran expects nearly 20 million mourners to take part in their ceremonies, underlying the scale and significance of the farewell.
02:53Senior Iranian leaders, including Parliament Speaker Mohamed Bagheir Khalibaf, broke down in tears as they paid tribute to the late
03:01Supreme Leader.
03:06We will never be separated from him. He has a place in our hearts, souls and very being.
03:14He will remain with all of us forever, with our beloved Iran and with our Ummah, and we will never
03:20bid him farewell.
03:28World leaders in foreign delegations have also descended on Tehran to honour Khamenei.
03:34India's delegation includes Minister of State for External Affairs Bobitra Margaretha,
03:39Bihar Governor Syed Atta Hasnain, Congress leader Salman Khurshid, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and several religious leaders.
03:50Representatives from around 100 countries are attending the funeral ceremonies, reflecting Khamenei's influence across the region and beyond.
04:00Among the most closely watched arrivals was a Saudi Arabian delegation led by the Kingdom's Deputy Foreign Minister,
04:07a notable visit despite the recent conflict that saw Iran firing missiles and drones towards Saudi.
04:17Iran is bidding farewell to the architect of its Islamic revolution, but it is also projecting the country's political continuity
04:26and regional influence.
04:28Bureau Report, India Today.
04:33Well, it's very interesting that we are here at the press centre, Sumit, at a time when no other Indian
04:40channel or Indian news network was allowed,
04:43and the spectacular way and manner in which the entire arrangements have been made.
04:49But there is also a security angle to it, Sumit. And that's why we are holding three cards over here.
04:54Explain.
04:55Yes, definitely Gita, every card has specific entry for this. This is a press card from which you can enter
05:01to Iran, you can do reporting,
05:03but not to cover the Grand Mozilla. That is something important for this. You need an extra card to enter.
05:09This is the card to enter the Grand Mozilla, which means the area that we showed you, the courtyard. So
05:17we entered Iran, then we entered Grand Mozilla, and then we were stopped.
05:21Then we were stopped because we needed another special card to enter this area for the media where we have
05:28access to and that we have shown where we have access to the coffins and the mortal remains of the
05:36Supreme Leader and his family that have been kept.
05:38And the third card, we need just to go closer to that coffin area because nobody is allowed. Huge crowd
05:45is there. At least one million crowd is there right now at the main centre, main area premises.
05:52And for that we need a special card like this.
05:55One million? Yes, one million.
05:56That's lakh Sumit.
05:5810 lakh at any given time.
06:01About 30 countries have come.
06:03About 30 countries have come.
06:03There is something that has access to the media centre.
06:09A lot of international media also has not got access to this area.
06:16Exactly.
06:16So a very rare privilege Sumit.
06:18No other Indian news network has reached where we are.
06:22India Today Global and Archduk here at the Grand Mozilla bringing you live coverage of what's happening and what is
06:30to transpire in the next coming days.
06:32No other network has reached so close to where the mortal remains of the Supreme Leader has been kept for
06:42public to come and offer their prayers.
06:45They are all here chanting Yali, chanting prayers, mourning the death of the leadership but also expressing resilience and solidarity
06:54that they are not going to give up, that they are not going to be let down so easily.
07:00This is the Iran and Iran sending a strong message to the world that they are going to stand tall
07:06irrespective of what the West does or thinks.
07:11This is reporting from ground zero with my colleague Sumit Chaudhary and video journalist Sumit Satya Rautre.
07:17This is Geeta Mohan reporting for India Today Global.
07:21This is one event that has bridged the divide between Shia and Sunni world.
07:26We see Saudi Arabia participating and also it has crossed borders.
07:31What is the significance of Karbala over here?
07:34The fact that the Imam Ayatollah Khamenei's mortal remains will be taken to Karbala and then will be brought back
07:41to Mashhad and he will be buried here.
07:43Are they looking at after Imam Hussain and his shahadat and martyrdom?
07:50This is the most important martyrdom.
07:52Yes.
07:53The both of these incidents have been kind of similar.
07:56There was Yazid in the pastime and in our culture we call him Trump and Netanyahu.
08:04So it's kind of the same and it's similar in some aspects.
08:09The whole part of the body of our leader going to Najaf.
08:14Well his birthplace was in Najaf and before that his father was living at that moment.
08:21Ayatollahs, it was a place for Ayatollahs to teach and learn more stuff about Islam and other stuff.
08:29Yes.
08:30And also about the other question of the shahadat.
08:34Yes.
08:35The impact of him, the speech and the diplomacy that he had.
08:41It was so much that the whole Islamic world was changed in some professors.
08:46And I hope that they know how much of a great man and a wise man he was.
08:55We have a saying, we say he was the most Iranian person in the whole Iran.
09:01He knew stuff that some typical Iranians wouldn't say.
09:05The words that some Iranians wouldn't even know that they were Persian.
09:08So I hope the whole world realizes that the loss of Aliya wasn't actually lost.
09:15And we respect that he earned what he wished to be a shaheed.
09:37The assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei marked the end of an era.
09:43And the dawn of an intensely volatile new one.
09:48Months after the devastating joint US-Israeli airstrike that took his life, a deeply fractured Iran finally began its massive
09:58state funeral ceremony.
10:01To understand the sheer weight of this moment, one has to go back to the very foundation of this theological
10:09state.
10:11While the initial fire of the regime was lit by its founding father, it was the second supreme leader who
10:19built its modern armour.
10:40If Ayatollah Ruhollah Khamenei led the revolution and founded the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979.
10:50His successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei shaped what the Republic actually turned out to be.
11:00Mainly because Khamenei's term was consumed by an eight year war with Iraq.
11:13Khamenei's foreign policy was guided by his deep dislike for the US and Israel.
11:20Slogans like deaths to the US and Israel were common at his rallies.
11:30Khamenei made Iran a regional power, a counter to Saudi Arabia.
11:36Iran, under his watch, funded and armed the Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Hamas in Gaza and militias in Syria, Iraq
11:45and Yemen.
11:49He also pursued a nuclear program, which became a threat to the West.
11:56A new deal was struck with Washington during Barack Obama's administration, but it was scrapped by Donald Trump in his
12:03first term in the White House.
12:06In June last year, the US and Israel bromed Iranian nuclear facilities.
12:14At home, Khamenei ruled with an iron fist.
12:17The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's elite force, swore loyalty to Khamenei and imposed his will on the people
12:26of Iran.
12:28The spiritual leader broke no dissent.
12:31Throughout Khamenei's rule, he faced multiple agitations, each of which the regime crushed.
12:41The most famous one in 2022, when women hit the streets over the custodial death of Masa Amini, who refused
12:49to wear a hijab.
13:07I say clearly that these riots and insecurities were designed by America and the uprising and the fake Zionist regime.
13:19This year, in January, economic hardships prompted thousands of citizens to raise a banner of revolt.
13:26But they, too, were brutally crushed.
13:31The official death toll was more than 3,000.
13:34The actual toll, much, much more.
13:44Last night in Tehran and some other places, a bunch of vandals showed up and destroyed buildings belonging to their
13:50country just to please the US president.
13:56The Supreme Leader, who never bent, is gone, leaving behind a heavily armed, deeply scarred nation.
14:08Ayatollah Ali Khamenei leaves behind a fortress built on regional defiance, but it is a fortress cracked from within by
14:18economic ruin and domestic fury.
14:23Puru Report, India Today.
14:28These are visuals from the morning in Tehran.
14:32All the streets leading up to the Grand Masala now absolutely cordoned off to vehicles without permits.
14:39Security personnel deployed everywhere, if you can see behind me.
14:43And absolute clarity that only those with security clearances will be able to go through to the Grand Masala.
14:51Again, women, children, little babies in prams, all of them you'd be able to see over here.
14:58And the emergency services like the one right behind me, ambulance services also available.
15:06Young women, all of them trying to ensure that they actually enter Grand Masala before it gets really crowded.
15:13So it's early in the morning, but we're seeing a lot of people come on foot now trying to ensure
15:19that they get a space before it gets really crowded.
15:24These streets right now look rather empty, but in some time from now you'll see absolutely packed streets.
15:30The stalls have been put up for people to get food, water and other medical services if required to ensure
15:40that there is smooth process when it comes to people going.
15:44If there's a long wait and if it gets hot, then they'll be able to have food and water on
15:50their way to the Grand Masala.
15:51It's a very solemn occasion. The country has come together, but the world is also coming together.
15:58What's the message and what does martyrdom mean for the people of Iran?
16:05Martyrdom actually in Arabic is Shahada. Shahada is in Koran, not only in Iran.
16:14So whoever gives his life for the cause, for the cause of Allah, and of course what the cause of
16:24Allah is for the cause of humanity as well.
16:27So we understand this from our beliefs, which is in Shia theology, you know about Imam Hussain.
16:37So that's the flagship of the Shia.
16:41I can see right atop the dome, the red flag and the Iranian national flag both are flying.
16:48Exactly.
16:48So that's the message of Imam Hussain?
16:49That is the message of Imam Hussain, to stand against the tyranny and never submit yourself to the tyranny, no
16:59matter if it's going to be giving your life.
17:04And not only for the cause of, say, for the Muslims, it's for the humanity.
17:12This funeral is about the man who ruled Iran.
17:15But the real question is about the man who is now in charge, Moshtaba Khamenei.
17:21In decades, this is the first time that Iran is witnessing a post-Khamenei era where Moshtaba Khamenei takes over
17:29at a time when global politics is shifting.
17:32And he's faced with many challenges, although Iran stands strong, it still faces economic crisis, regional conflicts and international pressure.
17:41How is the new supreme leader going to manage these pressures?
17:46And how will he fit into those shoes of his father, the late supreme leader of Iran?
18:07The supreme leader is dead, but the system he built moved swiftly to ensure its survival.
18:16Days after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the United States in Israel's strikes, Iran's leadership passed to his second
18:24son, Moshtaba Khamenei.
18:36The military commanders, senior clerics and the political establishment quickly pledged allegiance, ensuring there was no power vacuum at the
18:46helm of the Islamic Republic.
18:47A low-profile cleric who spent decades away from the public spotlight, Moshtaba quietly built influence inside his father's office
18:56while forging close ties with the IRGC, the backbone of Iran's security establishment.
19:04A volunteer during the Iran-Iraq war, that experience shaped his hardline worldview.
19:12Today, he wields sweeping authority over Iran's military, judiciary and foreign policy at perhaps the most dangerous moment in the
19:20country's modern history.
19:23Reports suggest, Moshtaba himself was injured in the strikes that wiped out much of his immediate family.
19:30Yet even from behind heavy security, his message has been unequivocal.
19:37In his first public statement, after taking over as Ayatollah, Moshtaba had vowed revenge for those killed in the war,
19:44demanded the shutdown of US military bases across the region and insisted the Strait of Hormuz would remain a strategic
19:52pressure point against Iran's adversaries.
19:55The message was unmistakable.
19:58Mohtaba preferred resistance over reconciliation, escalation over compromise.
20:04Yet even after assuming Iran's highest office, he remains absent from his own father's funeral.
20:14Iranian authorities cite extraordinary security concerns amid fears that Israel could target the country's new supreme leader.
20:24His rise also marks a historic and deeply controversial shift.
20:39Analysts expect tighter internal control, greater dominance of the revolutionary guards, continued focus on Iran's missile and nuclear programs, and
20:49an even more confrontational posture towards the United States.
20:52Israel.
20:56Nearly five decades after the 1979 Islamic revolution overthrew a monarchy, Iran's highest office has effectively passed from father to
21:07son.
21:07What comes next will shape not just Mohtaba's future, but Iran's too.
21:20Even as Iran is bidding farewell to its supreme leader, Washington chose this very day to send a very different
21:28message to the world.
21:29On the day of the funeral service beginning here in Tehran, President Donald Trump did not miss the opportunity to
21:39message out to the world who according to him has won the war.
21:44Also, continuing to pressure Iran on the fragile ceasefire as well as the negotiations.
21:50Here's a report.
22:04While Iran is mourning loss of their former supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
22:09The United States of America is celebrating its 250th Independence Day.
22:15During a speech near the iconic Mount Rushmore, Trump took pot shots at Tehran.
22:21In his trademark style, Trump claimed that the US knocked the hell out of Iran and they gave them a
22:26week off for the funeral.
22:28Two world wars, the cold war left America's enemies in the depths of history.
22:35We beat Venezuela in one day and we knocked the hell out of Iran.
22:41They're dying to settle.
22:43They want to settle so badly.
22:48We gave them a week off for a funeral because we're nice.
22:51On February 28th, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in US-Israeli strikes, which triggered a full-blown war in the
23:01Gulf.
23:02The conflict went on for 108 days until Trump and Vizeshkia finally signed a Memorandum of Understanding on June 17th.
23:11But fragile peace continues to prevail over West Asia.
23:15Currently, a ceasefire is in place and hostilities have been paused.
23:20Key Global Oil Road Street of Hormuz has been reopened and a direct line of communication has been established between
23:27the US and Iran.
23:30A 60-day negotiation window underway and technical talks having begun.
23:36In fact, both nations recently concluded a round of indirect technical talks in Doha.
23:42Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law, Jared
23:51Kushner.
23:51Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Garibabadi headed the country's technical team in the talks.
23:59According to reports, both sides have decided to establish a communication channel to resolve all disputes.
24:06And then even discussed release of $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds.
24:13Both the sides have now agreed to continue talks after conclusion of week-long funeral procession of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
24:21But as Trump's belligerence and Tehran's bluster frequently prove, it's a fragile peace which can any day deteriorate into a
24:31full-blown conflict once again to potentially devastating consequences.
24:36Bureau Report, India Today.
24:40That's all in this special broadcast. Keep watching this space and our network for all the exclusive coverage from Ground
24:47Zero.
24:48Thank you for watching for now. Goodbye and take care.
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