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UAE, Kuwait skip Khamenei funeral as reps from Qatar, Saudi Arabia attend

President Donald Trump mused that the gathering would be an opportune time to take out Iran’s remaining leadership

Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

People gather at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla for a farewell ceremony for Iran's late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on July 4, 2026 in Tehran, Iran.

The United Arab Emirates and Kuwait — both of which came under heavy Iranian fire during the recent war — skipped the funeral proceedings for late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, while representatives from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, India, China and Turkey traveled to the Islamic Republic to attend the ceremonies for Khamenei, who was killed in Tehran at the outset of the war at the end of February.

The event began on Friday and spans five cities across Iran and Iraq, ending in the Iranian city of Mashhad, where he will be buried Thursday.

Despite his three brothers’ attendance at the funeral proceedings, Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father as supreme leader and is thought to be seriously injured from the same airstrike, still has not appeared publicly.

IRGC Commander Ahmad Vahidi made his own first public appearance since the war began, sitting beside Khamenei’s casket on Thursday before the funeral began. Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, estranged from Khamenei for years, made a rare public appearance at the procession.

President Donald Trump noted on Monday that the gathering would be an opportune time to take out Iran’s remaining leadership. “They are all there,” the president told Axios. “One shot and we can take them all out, but we are not going to do that because then we would have nobody to negotiate with.” Talks between the U.S. and Iran are expected to resume after the funeral ends later this week. 

Though Lebanon sent Lebanese Defense Minister Michel Menassa, a delegation from Iranian proxy Hezbollah also traveled to Iran for the ceremonies.

Hamas, meanwhile, said in a statement that its delegation was led by the head of its political bureau, Mohammed Darwish, and included other bureau members such as Bassem Naim.

Also attending Saturday’s ceremonies in Tehran were Ziyad al-Nakhalah, the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and senior Houthi member Dhaif Allah al-Shami, state TV reported. Russia sent former President Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of the security council, as a special envoy of President Vladimir Putin.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a key mediator between Washington and Tehran, was one of the few sitting heads of government to attend in person. “The late supreme leader’s wisdom, leadership and profound influence on Iran and the wider region will be remembered for generations,” Sharif said, per his office. 

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