ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday left for Iran to attend the last rites of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Sharif’s office said, as Tehran prepares to lay to rest the country’s longtime leader.
The body of Iran’s late supreme leader, who was killed in United States-Israeli strikes that triggered the Middle East war in late Feb., arrived at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla complex on Friday ahead of his funeral.
Preparations for Khamenei’s public funeral, initially delayed at the height of the war, are taking place as Iran and the US observe a fragile ceasefire after signing a preliminary deal to halt the conflict.
Millions of people and a coterie of foreign dignitaries are expected to attend Saturday’s official ceremony for Ali Khamenei, with Tehran’s chief negotiator calling for a massive turnout to avenge his death.
“Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will participate in the funeral rites of Iran’s late Supreme Leader, Martyr Ayatollah Syed Ali Khamenei, in Tehran,” Sharif’s office said in a statement.
“On behalf of the Pakistani people and government, the Prime Minister will express heartfelt condolences to the Iranian leadership and the bereaved families and reaffirm Pakistan’s complete solidarity with the brotherly Iranian nation in this hour of grief.”
Photos showed mourners carrying Khamenei’s coffin, emblazoned with Iran’s tricolor flag, into the Grand Mosalla, one of the Islamic republic’s most important ceremonial venues.
Sharif’s visit comes after Pakistan assumed a prominent diplomatic role in efforts to end months of conflict between Iran and the United States. Islamabad, working alongside Qatar, has hosted and facilitated contacts between the two sides that culminated in the signing of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding last month, establishing a ceasefire and a framework for negotiations toward a permanent agreement.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has already arrived in Tehran to attend Khamenei’s funeral, Iranian state media reported on Friday.
China, Afghanistan and Iran’s neighbors in the Caucasus region said they would also be sending representatives.
“Thereafter, the Prime Minister will proceed from Tehran to Istanbul for his bilateral visit to Turkiye,” Sharif’s office said.
In Turkiye, Sharif is due to discuss regional security and economic cooperation and address a business forum.
