Credit: @m_h_mohammadi / X
Angry mourners hurled abuse at Iran’s peace negotiators, denouncing them as traitors for dealing with the US as tempers flared at the funeral of the former supreme leader.
Hardliners heckled Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister, and Masoud Pezeshkian, the president, as the funeral for Ali Khamenei continued into its fourth day.
Crowds shouted at Mr Araghchi: “Death to the traitor who sold out the homeland” and “bisharaf, bisharaf” (“dishonourable, dishonourable”) as he moved through the mourners. The word “bisharaf” has a more powerful meaning in Persian than its direct English translation.
It was reported that he left the scene on the back of a motorbike.
Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, left the funeral of Ali Khamenei on the back of a motorbike
Mr Pezeshkian was also insulted, with mourners chanting “death to the compromiser”.
Amid the crowd was Saeed Jalili, the hardline former negotiator and the only member of the supreme national security council to vote against the deal.
Some mourners kissed him on the cheek and urged him to “fix the country” – a pointed rebuke to the government staged at the very event meant to project national unity.
It comes after Iran’s living former presidents – Mohammad Khatami, Hassan Rouhani and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – were not invited to Sunday’s funeral prayer in Tehran.
They did not attend the Sunday procession, though Mr Ahmadinejad, who was thought to have been killed in the war’s opening days, surfaced on Monday among the mourners in the capital.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was thought to have been killed at the start of the war, was seen in Tehran on Monday
The hardline camp believes the government has pursued talks with Washington against the wishes of Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, and some contend that his father was killed because of the moderate and negotiation-minded cause.
The attacks on the negotiators drew pushback from within the pro-government camp.
Mostafa Gorji, an Iranian researcher, rebuked those who had abused Mr Araghchi, questioning how they could brand him a traitor.
“Has Araghchi’s treachery been proven and established, that you attack him like this and call him a homeland-seller, a traitor and dishonourable?” Mr Gorji said.
“Didn’t our martyred leader say to criticise but not to insult or make accusations? Couldn’t you have shouted for revenge for the martyred leader instead?”
Credit: @m_h_mohammadi / X
Iran, meanwhile, said it would abandon peace talks with the US unless Donald Trump stopped issuing threatening messages.
The warning followed comments from the US president on Monday, when he told reporters that Washington and Tehran would “either be going to make a deal or we’re going to finish the job”.
He added: “It won’t be tough to finish the job. I’d rather make a deal, because I don’t want to affect 91 million people.”
Iran’s foreign ministry said such rhetoric was incompatible with diplomacy and could collapse the negotiations, which have been on hold during the days of mourning.
“Negotiations on final deal will not commence if threats continue honour your signature,” Mr Araghchi said, referring to point 13 of the peace deal signed last month.
Iranian officials have repeatedly said Tehran remains focused on implementing the interim deal that ended the war but is prepared to walk away if Washington keeps shifting its demands or issuing threats.
Talks over reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s nuclear programme and a permanent end to the war are not expected to resume until after Khamenei’s burial on Thursday.
Millions lined the streets of Tehran for the funeral procession – Reuters
On Tuesday, the marathon funeral for the ayatollah moved to Qom, the holy city where thousands packed the streets.
The bodies of Khamenei and four relatives killed alongside him on Feb 28 – including his infant granddaughter – lay in state at the Jamkaran Mosque, where the 93-year-old grand Abdollah Javadi Amoli led the prayers.
Aerial footage on state television showed the streets of the seminary city, home to about 1.5 million people, choked with mourners waving red flags of revenge, which are common in Shia Islam.
The crowd chanted “Death to America” in unison as a truck moved the coffins from the mosque along Payambar-e-Azam Boulevard towards the shrine of Fatemeh Masumeh.
Placards demanding revenge against Mr Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, again dotted the crowd.
The mourning is the largest state spectacle Iran has mounted in decades, drawing comparisons to the 1989 funeral of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Authorities have cast the turnout as proof of the Islamic Republic’s strength and cohesion after the war.
The scale of the crowds also serves a diplomatic purpose, bolstering Tehran’s hand as it seeks leverage in the talks to come.
The funeral continues on Wednesday with a procession in neighbouring Iraq, home to a large Shia population and to shrines in Najaf and Karbala.
Khamenei, who ruled for more than three decades until his assassination at 86, is to be buried on Thursday in his birthplace city of Mashhad, at the shrine of Imam Reza.