Shafaq News-Baghdad (Updated at 14:01)
The PopularMobilization Forces (PMF), a state security organization that includesIran-aligned factions, said on Monday that Iraq's government had requested anofficial funeral procession for Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Speaking ata PMF meeting, Muhannad Al-Aqabi, director of the PMF's General Directorate ofMedia, described the procession as an official event that would be held incoordination with political forces and organized with the participation ofrelevant state institutions.
The Iraqi government spokesman Haider al-Aboudi said in a press conference that Iraq has approved a request from Iran to hold the official funeral procession for Iran's Khamenei on July8.
Iran’s FM is currently in Baghdad for a one-day visit, which includes officialtalks about preparations for the funeral procession.
Khamenei,Iran's supreme leader from 1989 until his death, was killed on February 28during the opening day of US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran. Tehran has announcedfuneral ceremonies beginning in the Iranian capital on July 4, followed by Qomon July 7, Iraq on July 8, and burial in Mashhad on July 9.
The Iraq legof the procession is scheduled to begin in Najaf before moving to the Imam Alishrine, one of Shia Islam's holiest sites, and then to Karbala, home to theshrines of Imam Hussein and Abbas ibn Ali, two other central figures in Shiareligious history.
