Iran has held a state funeral in Tehran to honor around 60 individuals, including senior military officials and nuclear scientists, who lost their lives during a recent 12-day clash with Israel.
The solemn procession took place near Enghelab Square, where crowds of mourners, dressed in black and waving Iranian flags, gathered around coffins draped in the national colors and adorned with portraits of the deceased.
The mass funeral followed the announcement of a ceasefire earlier this week, which ended hostilities that had seen the United States intervene militarily by bombing key Iranian nuclear facilities.
Authorities had mounted an extensive publicity campaign to encourage attendance, offering free metro and bus transport, and closing government offices to facilitate participation.
Among those buried was Mohammad Bagheri, Iran’s highest-ranking military official and Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces.
He was laid to rest alongside his wife and daughter, both killed in an Israeli airstrike. Iranian officials reported a death toll of 627 within Iran during the conflict, while Israel recorded 28 deaths from Iranian missile attacks.
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Other notable figures buried included Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, a top nuclear scientist and president of Azad University in Tehran.
President Masoud Pezeshkian and Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani, a senior advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who was injured in an Israeli strike, were among the dignitaries in attendance, state television showed.
The funeral came shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump made headlines for his comments on Iran during a press briefing.
Responding to a question from the BBC’s Nomia Iqbal at the White House, Trump said he would “without question” launch further attacks on Iran if U.S. intelligence concluded the country had enriched uranium to dangerous levels.
He also criticized Iran’s leadership, writing:
“Why would the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of the war-torn country of Iran, say so blatantly and foolishly that he won the war with Israel, when he knows his statement is a lie.”
Trump added, “I saved him from a very ugly and ignominious death, and he does not have to say, ‘thank-you, president Trump!’” He claimed to know “exactly where he [Khamenei] was sheltered,” and suggested he would not allow U.S. or Israeli forces to “terminate his life.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded strongly, urging restraint from the former U.S. president.
“If President Trump is genuine about wanting a deal, he should put aside the disrespectful and unacceptable tone towards Iran’s Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei,” Araghchi wrote on X.
He added, “The Great and Powerful Iranian People, who showed the world that the Israeli regime had no choice but to run to ‘Daddy’ to avoid being flattened by our Missiles, do not take kindly to Threats and Insults.”
Araghchi did, however, acknowledge that Iran’s nuclear infrastructure had sustained “excessive and serious” damage during the bombings.
While the full extent of that damage remains unclear, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said efforts to block Iran’s nuclear ambitions could not be achieved through military force alone.
“You are not going to solve this in a definitive way militarily, you are going to have an agreement,” Grossi told CBS News.
Meanwhile, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to claim he had been considering lifting sanctions on Iran, “In recent days I had been working on the possible removal of sanctions, and other things, which would have given a much better chance to Iran at a full, fast, and complete recovery.”
But, he added, “Instead I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more.”
