Bihar Governor, External Affairs MoS to attend Ayatollah Khamenei’s Funeral

Bihar Governor Lt. Gen. Syed Ata Hasnain and Minister of State for External Affairs Pabitra Margherita will lead the Indian delegation to Iran next month for the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Accompanied by senior officials from the Ministry of External Affairs, the delegation will represent India at the state ceremony.

Modi to Skip Tehran Due to Overseas Tour

Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian had extended a formal invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday through the Iranian Embassy in New Delhi. However, the Prime Minister will not travel to Tehran, citing a packed diplomatic itinerary that includes official visits to Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand, according to media reports. 

Previously in 2024, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar had travelled to Tehran to represent India after President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were killed in a helicopter crash. 

Invitations for the upcoming funeral have also been dispatched to leaders from China, Russia, Qatar, France, and Pakistan, with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif confirming that a delegation from Islamabad will attend.

Schedule of the State Funeral

Khamenei was killed, at age 86, in a joint U.S.-Israeli airstrike on Tehran. He had guided Iran since 1989, succeeding Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the architect of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iranian authorities anticipate millions of mourners will gather for the proceedings, which are scheduled to take place between July 4 and July 9.

The public ceremonies are structured over several cities across Iran. Khamenei’s body will first lie in state at Tehran's Grand Mosalla complex for the public to pay their final respects on July 4 and 5, with public holidays declared across Tehran province during this official mourning period. A formal state funeral procession will follow in the capital on July 6. Finally, the Supreme Leader will be laid to rest in his hometown of Mashhad, one of the holiest cities in Shia Islam, on July 9. This burial was initially planned for March but was delayed due to the ongoing military conflict at the time.

India-Iran Bilateral Ties

Throughout the recent months of regional military conflict, New Delhi has maintained a balanced diplomatic stance, continuing its bilateral dialogue with Tehran. High-level engagements have persisted, with Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi visiting India last month for a BRICS meeting, followed by Iran's energy minister attending the BRICS energy ministers' forum last week.

Prime Minister Modi last traveled to Iran on a bilateral visit in May 2016, where he met with Khamenei and then-President Hassan Rouhani to sign a trilateral transit pact with Afghanistan to develop the strategic Chabahar Port. The future of the port infrastructure now faces uncertainty following the expiration of U.S. sanctions waivers. Subsequent high-level contacts included a state visit by Rouhani to India in February 2018, and a bilateral meeting between PM Modi and President Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, in October 2024, during which Modi had invited the Iranian President to New Delhi.