Iran's decision to hold a July funeral for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is a high-stakes bet that any emerging peace deal with the United States will hold, potentially creating a "target-rich" gathering of Tehran's most isolated leaders, a counterterrorism expert warned Sunday.The multi-day state funeral, announced by Iranian state media on June 13, is scheduled to begin in Tehran on July 4 and end with Khamenei's burial in the holy city of Mashhad on July 9, Reuters reported.According to Dr.Omar Mohammed, director of the Antisemitism Research Initiative at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, the timing serves as a deliberate message to America."A mass funeral is the most target-rich event this regime could stage, and now they would not risk one until they are confident it wouldn't be hit," Mohammed told Fox News Digital.IRAN HOLDS FUNERAL FOR TOP COMMANDERS, NUCLEAR SCIENTISTS KILLED IN ISRAELI OPERATIONA motorist rides past a banner featuring images of Iran's slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his son Mojtaba Khamenei along a street in Tehran on April 15, 2026.
(AFP/Getty Images)"But it is the staging of this funeral that is the message, and the message is aimed at America as much as at Iranians."The announcement also coincided with a major diplomatic breakthrough, coming as President Donald Trump announced that a peace deal with Tehran is expected to be signed Sunday."The regime could sign a deal that lets it keep its leverage, then bury its leader as the victor who won it," Mohammed said."Announcing the funeral Saturday as Pakistan said the final text of a deal was reached and signing is close, is their bet that the ceasefire holds into July."Khamenei was killed on Feb.28 during the opening salvo of U.S.
and Israeli airstrikes against Iran, ending a 36-year tenure leading the Islamic Republic.He was 86.Experts say the regime is using the four-month delay since the February strikes to completely reframe the narrative...