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Ayat. Khamenei laid to rest

The body of martyred leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, has been laid to rest at the holy shrine of Imam Reza in the Iranian city of Mashhad. The leader’s interment took place after the funeral prayers were held at the holy shrine. Funeral prayers were led by Ayatollah Khamenei’s eldest son, Seyyed Mostafa Khamenei, alongside several members of his family. Before the burial, the bodies of Ayatollah Khamenei and his family members were circled around the holy shrine of Imam Reza. The bodies arrived in Mashhad after huge funeral processions were held in the holy Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala. More than 10 million people attended two days of processions in the Iraqi cities. The funerals in Iraq followed mourning ceremonies in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and the city of Qom. Ayatollah Khamenei’s funeral ceremonies were among the largest gatherings in history, and were covered by scores of journalists and media outlets from around the world. Ayatollah Khamenei and several members of his family lost their lives in a US-Israeli strike on February 28.

Iran responds to US attacks

The Islamic Revolution Guard Corps says it has carried out a fresh wave of retaliatory strikes against US military positions in the West Asia region. The IRGC says the US Central Command as well as the al-Azraq airbase in Jordan were hit with 10 ballistic missiles. It warned that if the terrorist US military repeats its aggression, other American bases in the region will also come under Iran’s heavy fire. Earlier today, the IRGC announced a joint missile and drone operation targeting Camp Arifjan and Ali al-Salem airbase in Kuwait, along with the Juffair and Sheikh Isa bases in Bahrain. The IRGC also said its air-defense units intercepted and destroyed a US MQ-9 drone using a newly deployed defense system. This, hours after the United States violated the terms of the MoU between the two sides by attacking several locations in southern Iran. At least 14 people have been killed and 78 injured in US attacks.

Rejecting NATO allegations

Iran has firmly rejected the allegations raised against the country in the final statement of the NATO summit, which was held in the Turkish capital. Iran's embassy in Ankara said the military alliance’s claims regarding Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program and freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz were unfounded and politically motivated. The embassy said in a social media post that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively peaceful, and the country has consistently announced that nuclear weapons have no place in its defense doctrine. It added that Iran has also played a responsible role in safeguarding maritime security and freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. The embassy said the primary source of insecurity in the region is the unlawful military interventions, provocative actions, and destabilizing policies of extra-regional actors. It stressed that due to NATO’s role in facilitating the US-Israeli aggression against Iran, the alliance is in no position to lecture Iran or prescribe policies for regional peace and security.

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