The coffin of Iran’s assassinated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during a procession in Iran’s holy city of Qom, July 7, 2026 (Sky)EA on WION: What Now For Iran After Funeral of Supreme Leader? The State funeral developed into a week-long political spectacle stretching from Tehran to Qom in Iran; from Najaf to Karbala in Iraq; and finally to Iran’s second city Mashhad. In this context, the funeral assumed a significance that extended far beyond the burial of Khamenei, the Islamic Republic’s second Supreme Leader. A State funeral would have assembled much of the Islamic Republic’s political, military, and religious leadership in a single location, together with enormous crowds of mourners. The additional time enabled the leadership to organize an event whose geographical reach, symbolic complexity, and organisational scale far exceeded that of a conventional state funeral.