Khamenei family mourns, but Mojtaba’s absence fuels public insecurity

Yet as the multiday event weaves its way through Iran — the procession will then pass into Iraq — residents across Tehran have spoken to Al Jazeera about one person whose absence has, to many, been more striking than the presence of everyone who has turned up: the country’s current Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.

Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public since the Israeli air strike on February 28 that wounded him and killed his father, Ali Khamenei, as well as Mojtaba’s wife, Zahra Haddad-Adel, and other family members. He has remained absent throughout the funeral ceremonies for his wife and father.

Iranian officials have attributed that absence to the continued threat of assassination. However, the attendance of many family members, including Ali Khamenei’s sons Mostafa, Meysam and Masoud, during the week of public mourning being held for their father, as well as the presence of many of Iran’s political leadership and foreign dignitaries, has highlighted the ruling Khamenei’s absence and stoked rumours over the extent of the injuries he sustained in the attack that killed his father.

“My country is no longer the Iran of old, where the leader is publicly present,” 26-year-old Masoumeh said from Tehran, where he was attending the funeral. “Mojtaba’s absence is irrelevant. But his presence is a sign of the country’s security, and I now have the feeling that the former security does not prevail in my country. The late supreme leader was the meaning of Iran’s power.”

On Monday, as Khamenei’s funeral procession made its way through Tehran, Israel’s defence minister appeared to threaten his successor. The minister, Israel Katz, said in a Hebrew-language statement that Khamenei “was assassinated by Israel because he set in motion and led the plan to destroy Israel”.