Iran postpones Tehran farewell ceremony for Khamenei where large crowds were expected to gather

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Iran postponed a planned farewell ceremony in Tehran for its late supreme leader, AyatollahAli Khamenei, who was killed Saturday in U.S.-Israeli strikes as part of Operation Epic Fury.

The three-day program was scheduled to begin Wednesday at 10 p.m.local time at Imam Khomeini Prayer Hall, where large crowds were expected to gather to pay their respects, according to Tasnim, a semi-official Iranian news agency.

Hojjatoleslam Seyed Mohsen Mahmoudi, head of theIslamic Propaganda Coordination Council of TehranProvince, said the postponement followed widespread requests to participate and the need to provide adequate infrastructure and facilities to accommodate attendees.

“It was decided to hold the ceremony at a more appropriate time,” he explained.

Iranian worshippers standing in prayer beneath a large portrait of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iranian worshipers pray under a giant portrait of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a prayer hall in Imam Khomeini Mosque in Tehran, Dec.9, 2022.(Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

No additional reason for the postponement was given, and it was not immediately clear when the ceremony would be rescheduled.

Israel’s Defense MinisterIsrael Katz warned Iranian leadership in a post on X that any successor who tries to “destroy Israel, to threaten the United States and the free world and the countries of the region, and to suppress the Iranian people” will be an “unequivocal target for elimination.”

“It does not matter what his name is or the place where he hides,” Katz said.

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People carry large portraits of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a Hezbollah funeral procession in Beirut.

Portraits of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, right, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are carried by scouts in Beirut, Lebanon, on Nov.24, 2025.(Scott Peterson/Getty Images)

The funeral of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, drew massive crowds in the country’s capital on June 11, 1989, with an estimated 10.2 million people in attendance, roughly one-sixth of the nation’s population at the time.

According toGuinness World Records, it drew the largest percentage of a population ever recorded at a funeral.

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Mourners press forward around the casket at Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s tomb in Tehran’s Behesht Zahra cemetery.

A huge crowd gathers around the container covering Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s tomb at Behesht Zahra cemetery in Tehran on June 7, 1989.(Christophe Simon And Pascal George/AFP via Getty Images)

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Khamenei’s death triggersa closely watched succession processoverseen by Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the clerical body responsible for appointing the supreme leader.

“The IRGC is a key stakeholder in this process, and will heavily influence its outcome,�