Hi All – While the US media was focused on the antics of Trump and the many events celebrating the USA @ 250, the importance of the Iranian funeral for its assassinated leader Ayatollah Khamenei (and many family members) has largely escaped notice. Yet tens of millions of people in Iran, and now in Iraq, are in the streets, weeping for their leader’s death and calling for revenge. The funeral is being attended by representatives from more than 100 countries; as Juan Gonzalez noted on today’s Democracy Now!, the countries represented constitute 40 percent of the world’s population.
I think the funeral’s importance surpasses the death of just a leader, or even of a leader connected symbolically to God. As Juan Cole points out below, it is a declaration by much of the world of their independence from American imperialism, from the ethical system that would allow assassinations during peace negotiations, and from the insane cruelty that characterizes aggression by Israel and the USA against those standing up to them. It’s symbolic importance might be similar to 9/11 in our country: something that creates greater national unity and attracts the sympathy of the world. “War: never again.”
BELOW I’ve linked some viewing and reading that I hope carries these thoughts forward.
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
(Video) Report from Tehran: Millions Attend Ali Khamenei’s Funeral Amid Widespread Sense of Victory in War
From Democracy Now! [July 7, 2026]
---- Millions of people are estimated to be participating in the multiday state funeral of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Iran this week. After ruling the Islamic Republic of Iran for over three dozen years, Khamenei was killed by a joint Israeli-U.S. airstrike on February 28. Now viewed as a martyr by both his religious base and the wider Iranian public, Khamenei has taken on a “new identity” as “the leader of the resistance movement, the leader in the fight against U.S. imperialism,” says Tehran-based journalist Reza Sayah, who has been reporting on the funeral proceedings. Sayah also discusses the absence of Khamenei’s son and chosen successor Mojtaba Khamenei from the public eye, the Iranian government’s position on the thousands of protesters killed by security forces in the early months of 2026 and more. [See the Program]
(Video) Beyond the Battlefield: What Comes Next for the Iran and Gaza Wars
From Drop Site News [July l7, 2026] – 45 minutes
[FB – In this program with Jeremy Scahill, Drop Site News discusses the situation in Gaza with Palestinian expert Diana Butto, and then speaks with US historian of Iran Vali Nasr about current events in Iran. The discussion of Iran begins at 26 minutes into the program.]
---- As millions of people gather in Iran for the multi-day funeral procession for the slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the future of the fragile Memorandum of Understanding between Tehran and the Trump administration hangs in the balance. President Donald Trump expressed surprise at the size of the crowds in Iran, saying he thought people hated Khamenei. For Iran’s leaders, the funeral has served as both an act of defiance and a warning to the U.S. and Israel. [See the Program]
For “Half the World,” Khamenei Funeral a Declaration of Independence – from Trump
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment [July 5, 2026]
---- Russia’s NTV said that the “the global majority” is at the side of the “barbarically killed” Khamenei’s coffin. … The international showing was all the more remarkable because Iran’s fundamentalist Shiite government is so widely disliked. Aside from the countries with substantial Shiite populations for whom Khamenei was a sort of saint, you have a feeling that countries are participating not from any love of of the late clerical Leader but to show disapproval of the Mafia-like tactics adopted by Tel Aviv and Washington, of simply rubbing out rival leaders from the sky. Moreover, many of those rivals must realize that if this practice becomes normalized, they could be next. The opprobrium in which many countries now hold Israel in the wake of the Gaza genocide, the attack on Lebanon, and the war on Iran, also likely played a role in these funereal politics. Khamenei’s brutal crackdown on protests in January had harmed his domestic and international reputation. Israel and the US made him a martyr, not only inside Iran but in half the world. [Read More]
(Video) Trita Parsi on US-Iran talks and fears of another conflict
From CGTN (China) [July 7, 2026] – 11 minutes
[FB – Trita Parsi is one of our most important analysts of the US-Iran-Israel triangle. He has written 3 excellent books about this. In this brief interview, he relays information from his informants in Iran that the Iranian leadership expects another attack from Israel before the October elections in Israel. [See the Program]
