At last, Iran begins funeral for Khamenei

Ceremony comes months after the supreme leader's death in U.S. airstrike.

- NASSER KARIMI AND JON GAMBRELL TEHRAN

ALTAF QADRI Associated Press MOURNERS fill the streets of Tehran for the days-long funeral for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Hundreds of thousands of mourners began a days-long funeral on Saturday for Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, beating their chests in sorrow before the glass case containing his flag-draped coffin in Tehran and calling for revenge against Israel and the United States.

The funeral for Khamenei, who ruled Iran for decades before he was killed at age 86 in a Feb. 28 airstrike in the opening moments of the Iran war, could provide a boost for the country's theocracy and its new supreme leader, his son Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.

That is important as Iran tries to leverage its hold on the Strait of Hormuz in negotiations with the U.S. over a permanent end to the war and as concern lingers that Israel could attack again.

The funeral was delayed as the war raged, and talks appear to be on hold until it is over.

During the ceremony, Iran's top negotiator warned France and the U.K. over their comments about potentially launching joint patrols in the waterway, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas once passed in peacetime.

Mourners wept at the sight of Khamenei's coffin alongside those of his family members also killed in the airstrike, with some chanting: "Our word is one! Revenge! Revenge!" Some carried banners and flags.

Billboards across the city bore Khamenei's image. Crowds of men rhythmically beat their chests in mourning, a common practice at Shiite funerals.