DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A high-ranking general who commands Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has come out of hiding as the country gears up for an elaborate, multi-day funeral honoring the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iranian state media published photographs of Gen. Ahmad Vahidi attending a planning meeting related to the funeral of Khamenei, who was 86 years old, and later sitting beside his casket during a smaller ceremony held Thursday night near the supreme leader’s former residence in downtown Tehran.
According to experts, Vahidi has become a key figure in shaping Iran’s hardline position during negotiations aimed at potentially ending its war with the United States. He is believed to belong to a small inner circle in direct communication with Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has reportedly remained out of public view after being wounded in Israeli strikes on February 28 — the same attack that killed his father, the elder Khamenei.
Vahidi himself had not made any public appearances since February 8, several weeks before the Iran war broke out.
Video footage released by Iranian state media captured the mourning ceremony near the husseiniyah at Khamenei’s compound in Tehran. An Israeli airstrike during the opening moments of the war took the life of Khamenei along with several of his family members. According to state media, his body lay inside a coffin placed on a stage, with red tulips arranged in front of it and what appeared to be paper butterflies suspended from the ceiling above.
Mourners dressed in black — identified by state media as families who lost loved ones in both the 12-day war in 2025 and the more recent Iran conflict — tossed scarves and other personal items toward attendants who brushed them against the coffin, a traditional practice in Iran.
State media later showed images of Khamenei’s casket covered by a red flag bearing white calligraphy reading “Ya Hussein,” a Shiite phrase commemorating the 7th-century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson. The flag had previously flown over the Imam Hussein golden-domed shrine in Karbala, Iraq. Traditionally, such a flag carries dual meaning — representing the blood of someone unjustly killed and serving as a call for vengeance.
Starting Saturday, Iran will conduct a dayslong funeral for Khamenei, with his remains transported to cities throughout Iran and into neighboring Iraq. The proceedings will kick off at the Grand Mosalla in Tehran, where officials plan to close streets and suspend normal daily activities as the nation mourns the leader who governed Iran for decades with a firm grip while repeatedly clashing with Western nations.
