Is the successor in hiding? Ali Khamenei’s three sons attend the funeral, Mojtaba does not attend

Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new Supreme Leader, was absent in public on Sunday as his father, former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and four family members were honored with state funeral prayers in Tehran. While state television broadcast footage of Khamenei’s three sons praying alongside Iran’s political and military leaders, Mojtaba’s continued absence increased scrutiny after Iranian state media said he would miss funeral ceremonies due to security concerns.Prayers were held in the Greater Mosalla of Imam Khomeini, where Khamenei’s body has been laid to rest since Saturday for public mourning and official farewell ceremonies.State television showed Mostafa, Maysam and Masoud Khamenei praying behind the coffins at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla. Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani, a 97-year-old Shiite cleric, later led funeral prayers attended by the three brothers along with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Parliament Speaker Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, a Revolutionary Guards general, according to the AP. Ahmad Vahidi and Quds Force commander Ismail Qaani.The new supreme leader is expected to skip six days of funeral ceremonies due to security concerns amid ongoing Israeli threats to kill him. Despite not being seen publicly since the succession, in a written statement Mojtaba sanctioned the memorandum of understanding signed by the Iranian and US presidents despite having a “different view”, after receiving assurances from senior Iranian officials that he would protect the “rights of the Iranian nation and the resistance front”.Mojtaba has not appeared in public since the Feb. 28 attack that killed his father and four other family members during Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iranian targets early in the war. Since then, no official images of the new supreme leader have been released. People close to his inner circle told Reuters he suffered facial disfigurement and serious injuries to one or both legs during the attack.The funeral ceremony began Saturday after Khamenei’s body was displayed indoors so senior Iranian leaders and foreign officials could pay their respects. His coffin was later displayed outdoors under glass along with those of his daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and 14-month-old granddaughter.During Sunday prayers, state television showed Massoud Khamenei wiping away tears with a keffiyeh as he recited funeral prayers. Crowds gathered outside Mosalla throughout the night, with many mourners crying and some beating their chests. Iran’s metro network said it recorded seven million trips from late Saturday to Sunday morning as people headed into central Tehran.The funeral program will continue with what Iranian authorities called a mass procession through central Tehran on Monday, before Khamenei’s remains will be transported to the seminary city of Qom on Tuesday. The body will then be flown to the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq for further ceremonies on Wednesday before returning to Iran for a final procession and burial in Mashhad on Thursday, near the Imam Reza shrine.