Mourners attend a funeral ceremony in Tehran for Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike last week. In a rare display of emotion, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cried openly at Soleimani's funeral.
The funeral showcased the depth of the bond Khamenei had with the slain general and gave insight into how Soleimani's death is being felt personally by the supreme leader. It could also impact how Khamenei responds to the United States.i militia leader in a stunning attack on their convoy, shortly after Soleimani had arrived at Baghdad's international airport.
To Iran's supreme leader, Soleimani was a loyal aide who conferred with him often and cemented Tehran’s footprint far beyond the country’s borders, helping to preserve and advance the principles of the 1979 revolution that brought Iran's Shiite leadership to power. Unlike other military commanders in the Revolutionary Guard Corps., the 62-year-old general answered only to the 80-year-old Khamenei.
“Of course not any time soon,” Khamenei said, adding the “Islamic Republic needs him for years to come.” And in death, Soleimani has received what no man before him has in modern Iran. His funeral processions have been spread over several days and cities, marking the first time Iran has ever honored a single man with a multi-city ceremony. Not even Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Republic, received such a processional with his death in 1989.
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