Iran’s decision to hold a funeral for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is a high-stakes bet that any emerging peace deal with the United States will hold, potentially creating a ‘target-rich’ gathering of Tehran’s most isolated leaders, a counterterrorism expert warned Sunday.

Funeral Details

The multi-day state funeral, announced by Iranian state media on June 13, is scheduled to begin in Tehran on July 4 and end with Khamenei’s burial in the holy city of Mashhad on July 9, Reuters reported.

According to Dr. Omar Mohammed, director of the Antisemitism Research Initiative at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, the timing serves as a deliberate message to America.

A mass funeral is the most target-rich event this regime could stage, and now they would not risk one until they are confident it wouldn’t be hit, Mohammed told Fox News Digital.

Security Concerns

The highly public, multi-city route presents a massive security vulnerability for Iran’s new leadership. Khamenei’s son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, has remained entirely in hiding due to targeted security threats and reported injury since the war began.

By every tradition, the son leads the prayers and stands at the grave; it is the act that consecrates the succession, Mohammed noted. But Mojtaba has not appeared in public since the war began, runs the country by courier, and is a designated target — and a funeral is a pre-announced time and place.

Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.