Iran uses Khamenei funeral ceremonies to project unity amid leadership uncertainty: Analysis

Iran is using massive funeral ceremonies for its former supreme leader to project national unity, but the new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, remains conspicuously unseen. Associate Professor Paul Musgrave of Georgetown University in Qatar tells Al Jazeera that the regime is drawing on "every symbol of unity you can think of, from religious to political, the revolution, all the way back to thousands of years of Persian civilization." However, he notes that the absence of the new leader is complicated by "the fact that this is a country that is still at war" facing threats from Israel and the United States. Musgrave warns that while the regime has "good reasons to be concerned about letting his time and place be known," eventually "you have to put somebody out there" because people want to see "who is occupying the throne." The ceremonies also moving to Iraq highlight the ongoing geopolitical struggle between Tehran and Washington for influence in Baghdad.

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