Participation of Millions in Martyred Leader’s Funerals Has Powerful Messages: Iraqi Author

IQNA – The presence of millions of devotees in funeral processions held in Iran and Iraq for martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei has important, profound and powerful messages.

News ID: 3498236

Date: 13 July 2026 - 14:13

This is according Iraqi writer and media activist Adel Al-Jabouri, who wrote in an article that if US President Trump was surprised by the millions of people who came to the streets of Tehran and other Iranian cities to mourn and bid farewell to their Leader, he was perhaps even more surprised and stunned by the sight of millions of Iraqis who filled the streets and chanted “Death to America and Israel”.

Al-Jabouri’s article in as follows:

Like in Iran, millions of Iraqis from all over the country attended the unprecedented and historic funeral of Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei in the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. Various sources have estimated the number of participants in the funeral in these two cities to be close to ten million people. This is a very large number, but at the same time, for anyone who knows, understands and appreciates the nature of the relations, bonds and commonalities that unite the people of Iraq and Iran, and the series of honorable positions that the Iranian leadership has taken in supporting and assisting Iraq in its darkest and most difficult times, it is neither surprising nor strange.

This huge presence of millions, with its moving and affecting human and emotional scenes, contains important, profound and powerful messages, perhaps the most prominent of which is:

First: The Iraqi people are loyal to those who stand by them, support them and defend them when needed. Undoubtedly, the Islamic Republic of Iran, i.e. its Supreme Leader, government institutions, political and social elites, and the general public, was one of the greatest supporters of the Iraqi people with all their diversity and affiliations at a time when they were striving to free themselves from the oppressive and bloody dictatorship of the Baath Party.

Later, the Islamic Republic was at the forefront of supporting Iraq and the Iraqi people in building their new democratic system after the fall of the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein in the spring of 2003. It also stood by them in confronting the Takfiri terrorism of Al-Qaeda and later Daesh (ISIL or ISIS), which was created and exported by a group of regional and international powers, led by the United States, to drown Iraq in political, security, and economic problems and crises, and to push it back instead of progressing.

Second: Iraq has been, is, and will remain a strong and active member of the resistance front. The United States, along with the Zionist regime and other powers, bet on the fall of the Islamic Republic by targeting the Leader of the Revolution and senior members of the establishment, while simultaneously weakening, marginalizing, and besieging the resistance front, especially those closest to Iran. However, events have proven the absurdity and naivety of these bets. Neither did the Iranian establishment fall after the martyrdom of its Leader, nor did the resistance forces bow down and surrender. If we set aside all previous positions and focus solely on the funeral ceremony attended by an unprecedented number of Iraqis, this alone is the most telling and clearest evidence that Iraq remains at the heart of the resistance front and is steadfast in its principles and positions.

If US President Donald Trump was surprised by the millions of people who came to the streets of Tehran and other Iranian cities to mourn and bid farewell to their Leader, he was perhaps even more surprised and stunned by the sight of millions of Iraqis who filled the streets, gathered around the coffin of the martyred Leader and chanted slogans of death to America and Israel, and even death to Trump.

Read More: {$sepehr_key_14272}

Third: Perhaps if there were those in Tel Aviv, Washington and elsewhere who had previously hoped to drag Iraq into a cycle of humiliating normalization with the Zionist regime under deceptive and vague titles and labels such as the “Abraham Accords”, the “New Middle East” or the “Deal of the Century”, the funeral of Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei attended by millions shattered all those hopes and aspirations. It established the fact that the peace sought by the United States and the Zionist regime is nothing but an illusion and a mirage. This peace will not be established by closed-door meetings or by signing documents whose contents are prepared by malicious and defeated minds. Rather, it will be established by the will of the nations and peoples who strive to reclaim their stolen, lost, and usurped rights, and by the support, help, and assistance of the nations and peoples who support this struggle with all means and methods.

If humiliating agreements were the determining factor, the struggle of the Palestinian people, the Lebanese people, and other nations would not continue, and the Zionist regime would not suffer continuous defeats and would not live in constant fear of decline and collapse.

Fourth: Those who create realities and events, shape positions and directions, determine paths and ways, and have the final say on the stage are the nations and peoples not the regimes and governments. In connection with this fact, the Iraqis, with the millions who carried the coffin of the martyred leader in their hearts and souls and lifted it on their hands and shoulders, did not adopt new positions, but rather confirmed, strengthened and deepened their existing positions, principles, beliefs and orientations. No one could prevent them from doing this.

Those millions are the same people who renew the covenant of sacrifice, allegiance and loyalty to the Master of the Martyrs, Imam Hussein (AS) every year on the 10th of Muharram and Arbaeen, and they are the same people who faced the injustice, oppression and tyranny of the extinct Baath regime, and they are the same people who defeated Al-Qaeda and Daesh and thwarted the plots and plans of America and the usurping Zionist regime.

4363658