Ali Khamenei, who served as Iran’s supreme leader until his assassination in a US-Israeli operation in February 2026, was finally laid to rest on July 9. His burial brings a week of public mourning ceremonies and processions to an end, and comes as hostilities between the US and Iran are escalating again.
Islamic tradition calls for the prompt burial of the deceased. Iran’s first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, was buried within three days of his death in 1989. Qasem Soleimani, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander who was assassinated by a US strike in 2020, was also laid to rest within a week.
