The body of the slain Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is to be buried in a Shiite shrine in his home city of Mashhad, the Fars news agency reported on Tuesday.
The agency, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported that the burial is expected to take place behind the shrine of Imam Reza, as was the case with Mr Khamenei’s father.
The mausoleum to the eighth imam in Twelver Shia Islam, Iran’s state religion, is considered the country’s most important Shiite shrine.
Prior to this, a public ceremony is planned in Tehran, according to Fars.
Details of the procedure and schedule will be announced later.
Mashhad, a metropolis with a population of about three million in the north-east of the country, is Iran’s second-largest city.
Khamenei was born there on April 19, 1939.
He died in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday in Tehran.
(dpa/NAN)
