Iran is preparing the largest state funeral in the history of the Islamic Republic, with ceremonies spanning five cities across Iran and Iraq over six days beginning Saturday, as the country buries the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei nearly four months after his death in the opening US-Israeli strikes of the war on 28 February.
Khamenei served as the Islamic Republic's ayatollah for 37 years, the second-longest-serving holder of the position since the Islamic Republic's founding following the 1979 revolution.
