Tens of thousands of Iranians thronged a vast outdoor prayer complex in Tehran on Saturday to view the coffins of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader killed at the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, and his family.

Dressed ​in black and draped in the red, white and green flags of the Islamic Republic of Iran, mourners held up portraits of Khamenei and his son and successor, Mojtaba, Reuters reported.

In a show of ‌public devotion to the Islamic Republic’s theocratic state and revolutionary zeal, Iran is staging a week of mass funeral processions for the supreme leader killed in February by the opening airstrikes of the war.

After a day lying in state indoors for senior Iranian leaders and foreign officials to visit, Khamenei’s coffin was put on display under glass outdoors, along with those of his daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and 14-month-old granddaughter.

There has still been no public sighting or image released of his son, the new leader, said to have been injured in the same ​attack.

Mourners filed into the vast courtyard of the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla, beating their chests, wailing and waving the banners of the Islamic Republic. Women dressed in black chadors wore white visors or held umbrellas ​to shield from the hot mid-morning sun.

“Let us wail!” a compere encouraged the crowds through a loudspeaker. Chants of “Death to America” echoed through the huge prayer hall.

BLOOD FEUD

“Everyone here ⁠has come to avenge the blood of their supreme leader,” Arash Rahimi, 40, told Reuters in the crowd. “As our leader has said, we have a blood feud with the United States. Our relations with the United States will ​never be good.”

The funeral is taking place at a critical moment for Iran, with its clerical rulers, backed by the military, buoyed from having survived the onslaught with their ruling system intact.

The war has been paused for a ceasefire ​under an agreement with Washington that Iran’s authorities say will ultimately bring huge economic benefits, in line with what they describe as a victory over a superpower.

The Axios news website quoted U.S. President Donald Trump as saying peace talks had been paused for a week for the events surrounding the funeral.

With Iran’s leaders all attending, Washington could take them all out with “one shot”, it quoted Trump as saying: “But we are not going to do that because then we would have nobody to negotiate with.”

Trump also told the news outlet that ​he was surprised to see some Iranians crying at the funeral, saying he thought people hated Khamenei. “Maybe it’s fake tears,” he said.

Iran’s embassy in Armenia reacted to Trump’s remarks in a post on X: “You don’t understand these things ​because you have neither civilization, nor history, nor honor.”

Within Iran, beyond the displays of solidarity with the leadership, it remains impossible to assess how deeply public loyalty runs across a country of 90 million people.

Weeks before the war, hundreds of thousands of ‌Iranians demonstrated against ⁠the government in protests that were put down in a violent crackdown in which thousands were killed. But there has been little or no public sign of such dissent since the U.S. and Israeli attacks began.

During the war, more than 3,000 people were killed including many of Iran’s most senior politicians and military commanders. Military bases and major infrastructure projects were destroyed causing billions of dollars in damage.

But Iran successfully struck U.S. bases in the region, inflicted pain on the Gulf Arab countries that host them, and asserted its control of the Strait of Hormuz, causing a spike in global energy prices which Trump said led him to push faster for peace.

The interim deal reached last month includes the ​unfreezing of billions of dollars in Iranian assets held ​abroad, and waivers from financial sanctions that had brought ⁠Iran’s economy to its knees.

SHI’ITE MARTYRDOM

In Iran’s theocratic system, Khamenei was not only head of state and leader of a revolutionary movement, but the earthly representative for Shi’ite Islam’s last imam, a holy figure who disappeared in the ninth century.

His death in an enemy attack plays into a long tradition of martyrdom and ritual mourning, dating to the ​seventh-century death in battle of the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Hussein, which divided Islam into its Shi’ite and Sunni branches.

Burials are meant to be conducted within a day ​of death in Islam, but because ⁠of the risks of holding a big funeral during the war it was postponed until after last month’s interim truce deal was agreed.

Khamenei’s coffin was unveiled late on Thursday. On Friday it was laid in state in the great prayer hall built to honour his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, where it will remain until Sunday evening.

After what authorities are billing as a massive procession in central Tehran on Monday, the remains will be taken to the seminary city of Qom, the centre of ⁠Iran’s Shi’ite hierarchy, ​for ceremonies on Tuesday.

From there the body will be flown to Iraq for ceremonies in the two Shi’ite holy shrine cities of Najaf ​and Kerbala on Wednesday. The body will return to Iran on Thursday for another procession in Mashhad, to be buried near the tomb of another of the mediaeval Shi’ite imams.

Authorities plan to mobilise millions of people for big processions over the coming days, offering transport, food and lodging.

Iran and the United States concluded ​a round of indirect talks on Wednesday with no sign they had made headway toward a lasting peace, focusing instead on ‌issues that they said had been resolved when an interim agreement was announced two weeks ago, Reuters reported.

Sources familiar with the discussions said negotiators for the two countries spent two days in Doha discussing maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and unfreezing Iran’s funds, two critical issues under the initial agreement.

The next meeting will take place after funeral processions for ​Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is due to be buried on July 9, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said.

The Doha discussions ​produced “positive progress” on issues related to the memorandum that halted the war in June and were “building on the outcomes” of ⁠a summit in Switzerland, the ministry spokesperson said in a post on X.

In Washington, US President Donald Trump said the two sides were making progress ​on possible limits to Iran’s nuclear program — the main reason he launched the war along with Israel in February. “The denuclearization of Iran is moving along well,” ​he told reporters. “They’ve had very good meetings, and we’ll see.”

But the sources said the nuclear program did not come up in the talks, which were technical in nature.

US Vice President JD Vance said that matter would be addressed later. “Obviously, we’re worried about the nuclear issue, we’re going to start talking about that,” he told reporters.

American and Iranian negotiators held ​separate meetings with Qatari and Pakistani mediators, Qatar’s foreign ministry said.

Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and top US envoy Steve Witkoff, dispatched to the region for ​what the White House had billed as “high-level” talks, did not attend the sessions, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity, read the report.

The leader of Iran’s delegation, Deputy ‌Foreign Minister ⁠Kazem Gharibabadi, said the talks concluded. Neither side said whether they had managed to bridge any of their differences.

The initial deal calls for Iran and the United States to allow shipping to resume through the Strait of Hormuz, which handled one-fifth of global oil and liquid natural gas trade before the war. Though traffic has partially resumed, the status of the strategic waterway remains unclear and the two countries exchanged strikes last weekend following an ​Iranian attack on a cargo ship.

​Iran is determined to win international ⁠recognition of its control over the strait even if it has to do so by force, two senior Iranian sources said, and has repeatedly said it will assess tolls on shipping starting in mid-August, after a toll-free period specified ​by the initial agreement expires.

Trump’s comments on Wednesday played down the possibility of a return to all-out war ​with Iran. “I think they’ve ⁠come a long way,” he said.

Oil prices fell to their lowest level in four months following Trump’s remarks, and analysts cut their price forecasts for the first time since the war began.

Iran’s state media said on Wednesday that a foreign container ship had run aground in shallow waters outside the shipping route designated by ⁠Iranian authorities.

“Hormuz ​continues to reopen but it’s patchy, unpredictable, and not fully transparent,” said Vandana Hari, founder ​of oil market analysis provider Vanda Insights.

Several European countries have offered to help clear mines from the Strait, but Germany’s defense minister Boris Pistorius said he did not expect his country to ​participate, citing Iran’s unwillingness to cooperate with other countries.

Iran is determined to win international recognition of its control over the Strait of Hormuz and ability to levy fees on ​ships entering or leaving the Gulf even if it has to do so by force, two senior Iranian sources said.

Under this month’s interim deal with the U.S. to end their three-month conflict, ‌Iran agreed to let ships pass through the Strait for 60 days without charge. But it believes the wording of the agreement allows it to keep control of which ships may pass and which route they take through the narrow waterway, Reuters reported.

It is also determined to secure lasting formal acceptance of this control once the interim phase expires, and its negotiators will not move to other areas of dispute in ongoing peace talks with Washington until that has been agreed, the sources said.

If the interim deal ends ​without being extended, Iran would start charging ships for passage in mid-August, though it has not yet laid out any list of what fees it will charge or how. Iran closed the Strait ​when the war began and Iranian officials have said authorities charged some vessels navigation or other fees to leave the Gulf.

Any lasting Iranian ⁠control over the Strait of Hormuz, with formalities and fees for ships, would add costs, delays and risks to all shipping through a waterway that before the war transported a fifth of global energy supplies plus other critical ​goods.

Passage through the Strait was never previously subject to fees and Tehran’s position runs directly counter to U.S. interpretations of the interim Memorandum of Understanding agreed on June 17, and to Washington’s stance on what the ultimate ​post-war arrangements will be.

U.S. President Donald Trump said last week that there would be no tolls charged for passage through the Strait unless Washington decided to impose them itself. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a meeting with Gulf states that no country had the right to block shipping or impose fees or tolls for passage through an international waterway.

Iran interprets the interim deal as meaning it can maintain control over all passage through the Strait, though without collecting fees during the interim phase of the ​deal, and that while it has to discuss arrangements with Gulf states, it is not obliged to reach an agreement with them, the sources said.

Oman stretches along the southern coast of the Strait and Iran is ​planning talks with the sultanate to define transit paths through the waterway, Tehran said on Monday.

However, Iran shot at four ships over the weekend that tried to traverse the Strait on the Omani side without first getting Iranian permission, triggering a brief ‌but intense ⁠exchange of fire with the United States.

One of the senior officials said Iran would not let the situation return to the pre-war status quo. Instead, it believes new arrangements must govern Hormuz including Iran choosing how vessels enter and leave the Strait, holding the right to deny entry to any it suspects of threatening Iranian security, and charging fees for compulsory services it provides.

Iran is ready to impose its demands on the Strait through force if there is no agreement by other countries to accept its terms, the official added, saying Tehran would not back down even if it led to renewed – and intensified – confrontation ​with the U.S.

The second senior Iranian official said that ​having survived what Tehran had seen as its ⁠biggest potential threat – a war with the U.S. and Israel – Iran believed it had a “historic opportunity” to secure a long-term advantage.

Ship-owning countries would eventually accept Iranian management of the Strait because of the growing cost of the dispute, and Washington would accept it to ensure uninterrupted global energy supplies, the official added.

However, Iran may be overplaying its hand and miscalculating how far Washington would be willing to accept what would be seen as an enormous concession, said ​Ali Ansari, professor of modern ⁠history at St Andrews University, read the report.

“The prospect of this conflict reigniting is much higher than people think because neither side thinks they’ve lost,” he said.

Neither Iran nor the U.S. is a signatory of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea that designates Hormuz as an international strait, although Oman, which stretches along its southern coast, is.

While the waterway is split between the territorial waters of Iran and Oman, its status as an international strait under the convention requires ⁠free passage.

The convention ​is widely regarded, including by the U.S., as customary international law.

It is also the agreement under which Iran could claim its territorial ​waters extend 12 miles rather than the mere 3 miles off its shore under other maritime conventions, said Chris O’Flaherty, a former British navy captain and specialist in naval warfare and law. The Strait of Hormuz is just over 20 miles wide at its narrowest ​point.

“This is an intensely political matter in which most people think international law is settled. However, Iran has decided to challenge that,” O’Flaherty said.