|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Tehran, June 29, 2025 — Iran held a solemn state funeral on Saturday for around 60 of its high-ranking officials, nuclear scientists, and military personnel killed during the 12-day conflict with Israel — a war that brought the Middle East to the brink of further escalation before a ceasefire was brokered earlier this week.
Tehran’s Enghelab Square was flooded with thousands of mourners dressed in black, chanting anti-Israel and anti-US slogans while waving Iranian flags.
The atmosphere was both defiant and grief-stricken as a long line of coffins, draped in the Iranian tricolour and bearing portraits of the dead, was paraded through the capital. The funeral, widely televised on state media, marked one of the most significant national mourning ceremonies in recent Iranian history.
Among the dead was General Mohammad Bagheri, Iran’s highest-ranking military officer and Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, who was killed alongside his wife and daughter in an Israeli airstrike earlier this week. His death was viewed in Tehran as a major loss for the military establishment.
Iranian officials confirmed that at least 627 people were killed during the conflict on their side, including top military commanders, members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and scientists working on Iran’s nuclear programme. In contrast, Israeli officials reported 28 fatalities inside Israel due to Iranian missile attacks.
The 12-day war, the most direct and deadly confrontation between Iran and Israel in recent years, was triggered by a surge in hostilities following Israeli intelligence reports that Iran was accelerating its uranium enrichment activities.
The conflict escalated when Iran launched long-range missiles toward Israeli military sites. Israel retaliated with targeted strikes, including the killing of key Iranian figures. The United States then entered the fray by launching coordinated airstrikes on suspected Iranian nuclear facilities.
The funeral was attended by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, along with senior clerics and military leaders. Among them was Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani, a key adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had been injured in an earlier Israeli airstrike.
Also buried was Dr. Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, a prominent nuclear physicist and head of Tehran’s Azad University, whose death is viewed as a significant loss to Iran’s nuclear academic community.
In preparation for the funeral, Iranian authorities launched a state-sponsored campaign urging public participation. Public transport was made free, and all government offices were closed for the day.
The official tone was one of national unity and resilience, despite what Iranian leaders have admitted was severe damage inflicted during the conflict.
Meanwhile, tensions between Washington and Tehran remain high. At a White House press conference on Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump made a series of incendiary remarks, including a threat to launch further military attacks if Iran resumes its nuclear weapons programme.
Asked by the BBC’s Nomia Iqbal whether he would consider bombing Iran again, Trump responded, “Absolutely. Without question.” He emphasized that any credible intelligence indicating uranium enrichment beyond acceptable thresholds would trigger immediate U.S. military response.
Trump also took to his Truth Social platform to mock Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, referring to him as the leader of a “war-torn country” and accusing him of lying about Iran’s victory in the recent war.
“Why would the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of the war-torn country of Iran, say so blatantly and foolishly that he won the war with Israel, when he knows his statement is a lie,” Trump posted.
He went on to claim that he knew Khamenei’s location during the conflict and had the capability to target him but chose not to, declaring: “I saved him from a very ugly and ignominious death… he doesn’t have to thank me, but he should remember it.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded angrily to Trump’s comments, calling them “disrespectful” and “unacceptable.” Writing on X (formerly Twitter), Araghchi said, “If President Trump is genuine about wanting a deal, he should put aside the disrespectful and unacceptable tone towards Iran’s Supreme Leader.”
He also rebuffed Trump’s characterisation of the war, asserting that the Iranian missile campaign had forced Israel to seek U.S. support. “The Great and Powerful Iranian People… do not take kindly to threats and insults,” Araghchi wrote.
Despite the ceasefire, tensions remain over the status of Iran’s nuclear programme. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said in an interview with CBS News that the world still does not know the full extent of the damage done to Iran’s nuclear infrastructure — or whether key components and enriched uranium were relocated before the strikes.
“You are not going to solve this in a definitive way militarily,” Grossi said. “You are going to have an agreement.” He stressed that only diplomacy would prevent Iran from eventually acquiring nuclear weapons capabilities.
Trump, however, cast doubt on the possibility of renewed negotiations. In a separate social media post, he claimed that he had been exploring sanction relief for Iran to aid post-war recovery but dropped the idea following Khamenei’s defiant statements.
“I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust,” Trump said. “I immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more.”
The current ceasefire remains fragile. Both sides have signalled that they are ready to re-engage militarily if provoked, and Western intelligence agencies continue to monitor Iranian nuclear sites for renewed activity.
With hundreds dead and nuclear tensions simmering, Saturday’s funeral served as a stark reminder of how close the region came to wider war — and how quickly it could unravel again.
As mourners wept and military officials vowed revenge, the streets of Tehran echoed with chants not just of grief, but of readiness to continue the struggle, should diplomacy once again fail.