Live: Khamenei Funeral Enters Day Two Amid Hormuz Fee Row and Trump-Netanyahu Tensions

A performer who stepped onto the stage during the funeral of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made an open public demand for the killing of US President Donald Trump. —AP

A grand funeral ceremony is being held in Iran for the country's former Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The multi-day observances are taking place at a delicate moment — a fragile halt to hostilities is currently in effect between Iran, Israel, and the United States — and the proceedings carry significant implications for the broader West Asia region. As the nation comes together in grief, the question capturing international attention is which foreign leaders and dignitaries have made their way to Iran to attend the burial of the former Ayatollah.

Footage and photographs emerging from Iran and being widely shared across social media show vast crowds of mourners who have converged on the Imam Khomeini prayer grounds to pay their last respects.

US President Donald Trump told Axios on Saturday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could make his way to the White House as soon as next week, adding that the prime minister fully grasps the power dynamic between the two of them. The prospect of such a meeting arises at a time when reports point to friction between the two leaders, particularly over efforts to bring to an end the war against Iran that the US and Israel jointly launched in late February. "We get along very good. (Netanyahu) knows who the boss is," Trump said in a brief phone exchange with Axios, making it clear he was referring to himself.

Iran's ambassador to China, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, insisted on Saturday that vessels navigating the Strait of Hormuz would be required to pay fees — a position Washington has already pushed back against — while assuring that nations on friendly terms with Tehran would be extended preferential treatment. The initial deal reached between Iran and the United States to halt their war had stipulated that commercial shipping could transit the strait at no charge for 60 days, though what framework governs passage after that window closes remains an open question. Speaking at the World Peace Forum in Beijing, Fazli said Iran was working in coordination with Oman on "new arrangements" for the strategically vital waterway, describing it as a collaborative undertaking. "As a country where the Hormuz is part of its territorial waters, we will definitely charge service fees," Fazli said in translated remarks, while drawing a clear distinction between such levies and a conventional "toll."

Prayers were due to be offered over the coffin of slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Sunday, the second day of marathon funeral observances that had already drawn massive crowds to Tehran to pay their final respects. Iranian authorities have not yet announced whether a religious dignitary or a member of his family will lead the prayers for Khamenei, who steered Iran from 1989 until his death at age 86 in an airstrike on February 28 — the opening day of the West Asia war. His son and newly designated successor Mojtaba Khamenei has remained out of public view since being named supreme leader, with reports suggesting he sustained injuries in the very same strike that killed his father. Sunday has been declared a national holiday across the entire country, and by evening Khamenei's remains are set to be moved from the Grand Mosalla complex where they have been lying in state, ahead of processions through the capital planned for Monday.