Top Iranian officials on Friday paid their final respects to the country's slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei at the start of a week of funeral ceremonies, with allies and mourners converging on Tehran where his body is lying in state.

Authorities expect public mourning and grand processions to attract millions before Khamenei's burial next week, four months after he was killed aged 86 at his compound in the opening US-Israeli salvo of the Middle East war. 

(AFP)

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, whose country maintains close ties with Iran, paid his respects at the coffin of slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran on Friday, Iranian state media reported.

Medvedev, described on state TV as a "special emissary of Russian President Vladimir Putin", was received by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and top diplomat Abbas Araghchi.

- AFP

Afghanistan's foreign minister in the Taliban government paid his respects on Friday at the coffin of Iran's slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iranian state television showed.

Amir Khan Muttaqi's tribute came just hours after that of Ahmad Massoud, the head of a key anti-Taliban group, whose father was backed by Iran in the 1990s.

- AFP

Iranians interviewed by AFP from Paris explain why they won't be attending late supreme leader Ali Khamenei's funeral, with some fearing for their safety and others not wishing to take part in a lavish ceremony while the Iranian economy suffers.

In the capital Tehran, residents reported fewer people than usual were out and about, with shops closed and roads leading out of the city packed, suggesting many did not want to take part in the ceremonies.

The multi-day funeral of the man venerated by many Shias, killed in US-Israeli strikes at the start of the Middle East war in late February, is taking place against the backdrop of a fragile US-Iran truce, and six months after major anti-government protests rocked the country.

- AFP

Iranian leaders began paying their respects on Friday before the coffin of the country's late supreme leader Ali Khamenei, killed in the US-Israeli strikes that triggered the Middle East war, as Tehran prepared for a vast funeral.

Khamenei's body arrived at Tehran's Grand Mosalla on Friday ahead of ceremonies which are expected to draw millions.

A coterie of foreign dignitaries is also due to attend Saturday's official ceremony, with Tehran's chief negotiator calling for a massive turnout to avenge his death.

- AFP

Iran president pays respects at Khamenei's remains: state TV

The body of Iran's slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was lying in state in a vast hall in Tehran on Friday as clerics, officials, foreign dignitaries and other mourners paid their respects after his 37-year rule. 

Iran is staging a week of mass funeral processions for Khamenei - killed in February by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes at the start of a four-month war - in a show of public devotion to the Islamic Republic's theocratic state and revolutionary fire. 

Khamenei's body was expected to be taken to Qom, Najaf and Kerbala, the great Shi'ite centres of Iran and Iraq, before being laid to rest on Thursday in Mashhad, home to the country's holiest pilgrim shrine.

- Reuters

 Iran prepared Friday for the dayslong funeral of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with banners across Tehran urging the public to rise up in support of the Islamic Republic after the devastating war that killed the 86-year-old cleric.

The country's theocracy plans to see millions flood the streets of the capital beginning Saturday in scenes reminiscent to the burial of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.

That could provide a boost for Iran's government, particularly as it tries to leverage its hold on the Strait of Hormuz in negotiations with the United States over a permanent end to the war, and as concern still lingers that Israel could attack yet again.

Despite that, a powerful general who leads Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard emerged publicly for the first time in months for the funeral. Other top government officials likely will be on hand alongside foreign dignitaries as well in show of strength of Iran.

"As long as these people, who are chosen (by God), are on the field, we will definitely continue the same 'no to humiliation' policy that was founded by the Islamic Republic," said Mohammad Hossein Rezaei, a volunteer preparing for the funeral Friday.

- AP