Iran personally invites PM Modi to Khamenei's state funeral; New Delhi yet to respond
Iran's Pezeshkian has personally invited PM Modi to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's state funeral, scheduled across Tehran, Qom and Mashhad from July 5 to 9. While Pakistan has confirmed its delegation will attend, India is yet to respond.
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian has extended a personal invitation to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the burial ceremonies for the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to news agency PTI report citing diplomatic officials. New Delhi has yet to confirm whether PM Modi will attend the ceremonies, which are scheduled to take place across multiple Iranian cities between July 5 and 9.
Pakistan confirms attendance at Tehran funeral
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has confirmed that a Pakistani delegation will travel to Iran for the funeral, announcing the decision before the National Assembly.
Sharif said he spoke with Pezeshkian by telephone and received a direct appeal from the Iranian president. "I said, Pakistan's delegation will be present there, so we can tell the world how much respect we have for him in our hearts," Sharif told lawmakers.
Sharif added that during the call, Pezeshkian "repeatedly expressed his gratitude for standing by them in difficult times."
A funeral months in the making
Khamenei, 86, was killed on 28 February during the opening wave of joint US-Israeli air strikes on Tehran, making him the first Iranian supreme leader to die in a foreign military attack. The funeral was initially scheduled for March but was postponed as the war between Iran, the United States, and Israel continued.
The ceremonies will begin in Tehran on 4 July, move to the holy city of Qom on 7 July, and conclude with burial in Khamenei's hometown of Mashhad on 9 July.
India yet to respond to funeral invitation
Diplomatic sources confirmed that Pezeshkian personally invited Modi to the burial ceremonies, though no official response has come from New Delhi. The invitation places India in a delicate diplomatic position, given the geopolitical sensitivities surrounding the US-Israeli military campaign that killed Khamenei.
India has historically maintained ties with Iran while also cultivating strategic partnerships with the United States and Israel, making any decision on Modi's attendance a closely watched diplomatic signal.
Who was Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?
Khamenei led Iran from 1989, following the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the ideological architect of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ended the rule of the Pahlavi monarchy. Where Khomeini provided the revolution's ideological foundation, Khamenei shaped Iran's military and paramilitary institutions over more than three decades in power.
His successor, son Mojtaba Khamenei, has remained out of public view since the outbreak of the US-Iran-Israel conflict earlier this year.
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