Iran opened a seven-day state funeral for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday, with delegations from more than 100 countries expected in Tehran to mark the death of the supreme leader who had led the Islamic Republic since 1989, according to Al Jazeera.

Khamenei, 86, was killed on February 28 in a joint United States-Israeli air strike on his compound, on the first day of what became the 2026 war between Iran and the US and Israel, Al Jazeera reported. The funeral, originally planned for March, was postponed because of the fighting.

The ceremonies come as Iran adjusts to a leadership transition that was settled during the war itself. In March, Iran's Assembly of Experts named Khamenei's son, Mojtaba Khamenei, as the new supreme leader, according to Fortune.

A funeral delayed by war

Al Jazeera reported that the proceedings begin in Tehran and run for a week: public viewings at the capital's Grand Mosalla over the weekend, processions toward the holy city of Qom, ceremonies in the Iraqi shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala, and a final burial the following Friday in Mashhad at the Imam Reza shrine.

The war that killed Khamenei ended in a ceasefire. The United States and Iran, together with Israel, agreed to halt fighting in early April after more than five weeks, and the two presidents signed a memorandum of understanding intended to formally end the conflict on June 17, according to a UK House of Commons Library briefing and reporting by Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera reported that both sides launched attacks during the ceasefire period.

A contested succession

Fortune reported that the Assembly of Experts, meeting from March 3 to 8, chose the 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei, describing him as a secretive cleric with close ties to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, and that his selection was announced on March 9. Fortune reported dissent within Iran over the choice, with some political figures objecting that passing the title from father to son amounted to hereditary rule of the kind toppled in the 1979 revolution.

Al Jazeera reported that the new supreme leader will not attend his father's funeral, citing security concerns after Israeli assassination threats.

Who is attending, and who is not

According to Al Jazeera, heads of state and government expected in Tehran include Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Tajikistan's President Emomali Rahmon, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Georgian President Mikheil Kavelashvili. China, Russia, India, Turkey, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are sending deputy or senior officials, the outlet reported, with Russia represented by Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev. Outlook India reported that India's delegation is led by a junior minister and a state governor.

Al Jazeera's list of confirmed attendees included no Western heads of state.

What to watch

Al Jazeera quoted Iranian military commander Ali Abdollahi warning the United States and Israel to "avoid any miscalculation." The war's central question, the future of Iran's nuclear program, remains unresolved: the House of Commons Library briefing cited a preliminary US Defense Intelligence Agency assessment that Iran had moved much of its enriched uranium before the strikes and that the attacks set back its weapons capability by only months. How the new supreme leader consolidates authority, and whether the ceasefire holds, are among the open questions Iran faces after the transition.