Black-clad crowds of mourners poured onto the streets of central Tehran from dawn on Monday morning, ahead of the funeral procession for the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
“It is a must for us to be here. He was our imam,” Ali, 59, told CNN. Being here showed the solidarity of the people of Iran, he said.
The procession route was a river of flags — Iranian, religious and others for causes more political: the flags of Palestine and Hezbollah.
Mourners chanted non-stop, with no sign of the ayatollah’s coffin more than an hour after the procession’s official start time. Parents pushed strollers with infants, as men, women and…