MOURNING: Tens of thousands attend the funeral procession of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran
ISRAELI Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Monday slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was assassinated for trying to “destroy” Israel and future Iranian leaders had better watch out, in remarks unlikely to ease tensions as the ayatollah’s funeral procession began in Tehran.
Iranian authorities said millions lined the streets as the flatbed lorry carrying the coffins of the former supreme leader and his family proceeded through the capital, after which they will be displayed in Qom and the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala before being laid to rest in Mashhad, Iran.
Expressions of anger at the US-Israeli strike that killed them included an effigy of US President Donald Trump being hanged.
Mr Katz doubled down on justifying the bombing in comments made to Israel’s Channel 13, and earlier said Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Khamenei’s son Mojtaba, was “marked for death.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi retorted that the United States needed to honour a commitment to “muzzle its pets in Tel Aviv.”
History shows from Iraq to Libya, and now Iran, that regime-change fantasies rarely deliver stability — but they always deliver human and economic cost, says MARYAM ESLAMDOUST