Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif attends a farewell ceremony for the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Photo: Reuters
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Saturday that Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei will be remembered for generations for his wisdom, leadership and profound influence on Iran and the region as a whole.
“The late Supreme Leader’s wisdom, leadership and profound influence on Iran and the region as a whole will be remembered for generations,” Prime Minister Shehbaz said in an article on X.
Khamenei was killed at the age of 86 on February 28 in a joint US-Israeli airstrike in Tehran on his residence. His six-day funeral and memorial processions brought several world leaders to pay their respects to the slain Supreme Leader.
Khamenei’s funeral processions began today in Tehran and will end on July 9 with his burial in his hometown of Mashhad, with additional ceremonies planned in Qom and Iraq between those dates.
The Prime Minister, in his statement, said that he paid his respects and conveyed his deepest condolences on behalf of the government and people of Pakistan to the government and brotherly people of Iran during the funeral ceremony.
While reaffirming Islamabad’s solidarity with the people of Iran, Prime Minister Shehbaz said, “As a brotherly neighbor, Pakistan stands with Iran in this time of mourning. »
“To demonstrate our solidarity with the Iranian people, I was accompanied by a high-level delegation including DPM Ishaq Dar, CDF and COAS Marshal Asim Munir and senior parliamentarians including Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq,” he added.
Read: Iranians gather to attend Khamenei’s week-long funeral
A day earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz and CDF Munir attended the funeral ceremony of assassinated Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei.
During a one-day visit to Iran, the Prime Minister expressed full solidarity with the Supreme Leader, His Eminence Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, President Masoud Pezeshkian and the brotherly people of Iran in this moment of national grief and prayed to Allah Almighty for the forgiveness of the deceased leader.
Critical moment for the Islamic Republic
Khamenei’s coffin was unveiled Thursday evening before a crowd of sobbing supporters, swaying and banging their heads to the rhythm of a chanted lament as flowers were thrown from beer into the crowd. On Friday, the coffin – along with those of his family members killed with him – was laid in state in the large prayer hall built in honor of his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
The funeral came at a critical time for Iran, where religious leaders backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps survived what they saw as an existential war against their greatest and most powerful enemies.
But nearly fifty years after the 1979 revolution, and despite all the official proclamations of national unity in the run-up to Khamenei’s funeral, the Islamic Republic has rarely been so internally fractured.
Tehran’s streets were tightly controlled, with military and police vehicles lining main roads and black-shirted police and members of the Basij volunteer paramilitary force patrolling on motorcycles. Iran has warned the United States and Israel against attacking the funeral.
