War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrives at Grand Mosalla to lead prayers over the bodies of the late supreme leader and his slain family members.

President Pezeshkian also offered his condolences to Khamenei’s sons who were in attendance at the funeral prayers.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has hailed Pakistan’s mediation between Iran and the US after meeting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Istanbul, Al Jazeera reports.

“The entire world has breathed a sigh of relief,” Erdogan said, according to a statement by the Turkish presidency, in reference to the memorandum of understanding that was signed last month by Tehran and Washington.

Erdogan said Turkiye would continue to support initiatives aimed at reducing regional tensions, adding that it was also closely monitoring what he called Israeli provocations.

“The current Israeli government, which has become addicted to war, should never be allowed to once again plunge our region into the smell of gunpowder and blood,” Erdogan said.

Calls have rung out for the killing of US President Donald Trump in the crowd of hundreds of thousands of mourners in Iran’s capital, Al Jazeera reports.

Posters and graffiti at the Grand Mosalla called for the killing of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mohammad Rasouli, a poet who emceed the event before the funeral prayers, drew out calls of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”.

Speaking to the crowd over loudspeakers, Rasouli asked, referring to Trump: “Why is the most bastard man in the world still alive?” The question drew cheers from the crowd.

Brigadier-General Mohammad Akraminia says the army is using the ceasefire period to strengthen its combat capabilities, warning any “enemy mistake” would be met with a “decisive response,” Al Jazeera reports.

Akraminia said Iran is using the halt to hostilities to strengthen its armed forces. “We will not waste a single moment or neglect this,” he said.

“If the enemies make a mistake they will definitely face a crushing and decisive response from the Iranian armed forces,” he said.

The United Kingdom’s Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) Centre says that a cargo vessel 30 nautical miles off Yemen has triggered a distress alert over an attack by unknown armed assailants.

“Authorities are investigating,” it says.

Qatar says that maritime activities will resume with immediate effect, according to a statement by its ministry of transport.

This reverses a June 29 advisory that had urged all vessels to suspend sailing and maritime activities until further notice.

“Maritime navigation activities can now resume normally for all types of maritime vessels and ships,” the ministry said on X.

Mourners gathered at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla to pay their respects to Iran’s late supreme leader wave flags saying, “We will avenge.”

According to an Al Jazeera reporter on the ground, emotions are running high among mourners, with people chanting anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans, and calling for the assassination to be avenged.

Funeral prayers were held today for the four members of Khamenei’s family — including his 14-month-old granddaughter — who were assassinated in a joint US-Israeli strike on February 28, Al Jazeera reported.

Footage shared by Iran’s Tasnim news agency shows her smaller conffin placed besides her grandfather’s during funeral proceedings. Her mother is also among those being mourned today.

Slain Iranian leader Khamanei’s sons, Masoud, Meysam and Mostafa were seen attending funeral prayers in Tehran, AP reported on Sunday.

IRGC Commander in Chief Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi was also in attendance, Al Jazeera reported.

However, Khamenei’s son and successor, Mojtaba, has not attended due to security risks.

More than seven million passengers have used Tehran’s metro network from 5:30pm on Saturday to 7am on Sunday - the jump in ridership coinciding with former leader Khamenei’s funeral at the Grand Mosalla, Al Jazeera reported.

Attendees have been advised by organisers to use the metro system to access the site, Tasnim News Agency said.

Prayers have been held over the casket of Iran’s late supreme leader Ali Khamenei, the second day of funeral ceremonies that have drawn huge crowds to pay their final respects in Tehran, AFP reports.

Today’s service at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla complex was led by prominent Shia cleric Ja’far Sobhani, a 97-year-old scholar who teaches in seminaries at the holy city of Qom.

Khamenei’s son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei, who is said to have been wounded in the February 28 attack, has not appeared in public since being named supreme leader and was notably absent from the funeral prayers.

The late supreme leader’s other three sons, Masoud, Mostafa and Meysam, were in attendance.

Hit by the biggest energy supply shock in decades during the Middle East war, import-dependent India is expanding domestic crude exploration, its oil minister says according to AFP.

With a temporary US-Iran deal in place to pause hostilities, oil and gas shipments are flowing through the Gulf waterway again, and restrictions and price hikes in India are being rolled back.

Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said the energy crunch provided fresh impetus for India’s expansion of domestic supplies.

“We are currently in the process … to bid out about 250,000 square kilometres of unexplored area,” Puri told AFP.

Speaking at a celebration for the 250th anniversary of the US, Trump says the country has “wiped out” Iran.

“We’ve had tremendous success. You look at Venezuela, you look at Iran — we wiped it out, wiped out their military,” he said, addressing an audience at the Salute to America Celebration on the National Mall in Washington.

Seven Opec+ members are likely to raise oil production quotas today as Gulf countries are reeling from the war, analysts have told AFP.

Saudi Arabia, Russia and five other members of the enlarged Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec+) are meeting online on Sunday to discuss quotas for August.

Opec+ will likely continue “to unwind the production cuts at the same pace like in the previous months”, said Giovanni Staunovo, a commodity analyst at the Swiss bank UBS, predicting an increase of 188,000 barrels per day.

“But for now, production is probably still below the group’s targets,” Staunovo told AFP.

Ship-tracking firm Windward says four vessels attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz via the southern route along Oman’s coast have altered course, with two turning back and two diverting to a central corridor, Al Jazeera reports.

Tehran claims sole responsibility for managing traffic in the Strait of Hormuz during the 60-day period specified in its MoU with the US, and is seeking, in coordination with Oman, to impose fees for services in the waterway once that period ends.

Ship-tracking firms have been reporting a modest recovery in maritime traffic through the Strait in recent days but still well below pre-war levels.

Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu could visit the White House as early as next week, US President Donald Trump tells Axios according to AFP, adding that the prime minister “knows who the boss is” in their relationship.

The possible meeting comes amid reports of tensions between the two leaders over efforts to end the war against Iran that the US and Israel started in late February.

“We get along very good. (Netanyahu) knows who the boss is,” Trump said in a brief phone interview with Axios, referring to himself.

An Israeli official told the US media outlet that next week might be too soon for the visit because Trump will be traveling to Turkiye for a Nato summit on July 7-8.

“It might take place the week after,” the official told Axios.

The Israeli military claims that it has killed an armed militant in the “security zone” under its control in south Lebanon, AFP reports.

“Earlier today (Saturday), IDF soldiers identified an armed terrorist operating inside the Security Zone, in the Majdal Zoun area in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement, adding that troops “opened fire at the terrorist” and, after conducting “extensive searches”, then “eliminated” him.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said an Israeli helicopter carried out “a broad sweep operation on the outskirts” of Majdal Zoun and launched five missiles towards the village, without specifying a target or immediately reporting casualties.

The NNA also reported yesterday that an Israeli strike on the village of Mansouri wounded one person, and reported Israeli artillery shelling elsewhere.

Prayers are to be said over the casket of slain Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei today, the second day of marathon funeral ceremonies that have already drawn huge crowds to pay their final respects in Tehran, AFP reports.

Sunday has been declared a public holiday for the entire country, and in the evening, Khamenei’s body will leave the Grand Mosalla complex where it is lying in state in preparation for processions through the capital planned for Monday.

Hassan Hassanzadeh, in charge of the ceremonies as commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards in Tehran, said that “prayers will be carried out over the holy body of the martyred leader” at 8am local time (9:30am PKT), according to state TV.

Iran’s FM Abbas Araghchi says the participation of over 70 countries in former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s funeral “will remain an everlasting memory in the course of our shared relations”.

In a post in Arabic on X, Araghchi wrote: “Iran is pleased to have received representatives from more than 70 countries who chose to participate in honoring our supreme leader, the martyr, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, including our loyal Arab brothers among them.

“And this historic commemoration will remain an everlasting memory in the course of our shared relations,” he added.

Araghchi shared pictures of delegations from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Iraq at the funeral on Friday.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty has stressed the need to maintain momentum to fulfil the conditions of the recently signed memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran, Al Jazeera reports.

Abdelatty says this is essential to consolidate de-escalation between the two sides, and to ensure regional security and stability.

The Egyptian foreign minister has made the remarks during a meeting with the EU’s commissioner for the Mediterranean, Dubravka Suica, in Cairo.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian says the mourning of the Iranian people was the “best evidence of the greatness, dignity, and strength of the martyred leader of the revolution”, Al Jazeera reports citing the state-run ISNA news agency.

Pezeshkian also notes “the anger of America and Israel over this mourning”.

Moscow is ready to continue its strategic partnership with Iran following the war with the US and Israel, Al Jazeera reports quoting Russia’s Security Council Deputy Chairman, Dmitry Medvedev.

The former Russian president is speaking in Tehran, where he is leading the Russian delegation at the funeral of late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Speaking to the Tasnim news agency, Medvedev says the Strait of Hormuz gave Iran unprecedented leverage during the war.

“It’s Iran’s nuclear weapon,” he is quoted as saying.