Iran invites Modi to Khamenei’s funeral, India yet to respond

New Delhi: The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, extended an invitation on Tuesday to the prime minister, Narendra Modi, to attend the multi-city state funeral for Iran’s assassinated supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on February 28 in the US-Israeli joint strikes.

Iran will hold funeral ceremonies from July 4 and conclude on July 9, with Khamenei’s burial in his hometown, Mashhad. Khamenei’s funeral was initially scheduled for March. However, it came to be postponed as the war worsened.

The procession will begin from Tehran, proceed to Qom, and then go to Najaf and Karbala before reaching Mashhad.

Modi has been invited to the funeral alongside several other world leaders, including those from China, Russia, Qatar, France, and Pakistan. Pakistan has agreed to send a delegation to Iran; however, India has yet to announce its decision.

Iran has handed over the formal invitation addressed to the prime minister to the Ministry of External Affairs.

It may be noted that India has not yet condemned the killing of Khamenei. Five days after his assassination, on March 5, the external affairs minister, S Jaishankar, held a phone call with the Iranian foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi. The Indian government expressed formal condolences, with the foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, signing the condolence book at the Iranian Embassy in New Delhi.

Following nearly 40 days of intense conflict, a fragile truce was formally agreed upon by the United States and Iran on April 8 to halt military operations. Mediated by Pakistan and Qatar, high-level diplomatic talks took place at the Burgenstock resort in Lucerne, Switzerland, to establish a 60-day roadmap for a permanent settlement.

Modi had last visited Iran in May 2016, when he met Khamenei and the-then* president, Hassan Rouhani, to sign a trilateral agreement to develop the Chabahar port.

Modi and Pezeshkian had last met on the sidelines of the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, in October 2024, during which Modi had invited Pezeshkian to visit India. At the time, the prime minister had expressed deep concern over the widening of the Israel-Hamas conflict and reiterated India’s call to de-escalate the situation.

The two leaders had also noted that the signing of the long-term contract of Chabahar port was an important milestone in bilateral relations. They had also reaffirmed its significance for the reconstruction and redevelopment of Afghanistan and enhancing trade and economic linkages with Central Asia.