Iran Negotiations Day 18: Mourners at Khamenei’s Funeral Defiant

Hundreds of thousands of mourners were reported to have gathered in Tehran to pay respects to former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei by the second day of funeral ceremonies on Sunday, the 18th day of negotiations to end the Iran War. Khamenei was assassinated by the U.S. and Israel on February 28.

Senior Iranian officials, though not the new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, have attended the dayslong funeral.

The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal, reporting from Tehran, observed backlash to the Iranian government’s decision to proceed with negotiations to end the war and mass distrust of the U.S. and Israel, noting that “there are indignant calls for vengeance, displays of sorrow and defiance, protest.”

A Financial Times poll which surveyed 1,795 registered voters from June 26-30 was released on Sunday and found that 58 percent of registered U.S. voters said the Iran War had not been worth the cost, with only 28 percent saying the war had been worth it. The White House in June asked Congress for $67 billion to cover the cost of the Iran War. 

FT noted, 

the conflict — which has pushed petrol and other consumer prices sharply higher this year — continues to drag down the president’s approval. Just 36 percent of voters said they approved of the job Trump was doing as president, a two-point drop compared with the previous month. Among independents, the drop-off was sharper, with an approval rate of just 21 per cent, an eight-point decline from one month earlier.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported Israeli helicopter fire and airstrikes in areas of southern Lebanon occupied by Israeli soldiers, sustaining a military campaign that Tehran warns could derail the Iran War peace process.

The first article of the 60-day interim agreement, which entered into effect on June 17, requires the “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon” and commits the U.S. to “ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon.” A separate framework negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio between the U.S., Israel, and the Lebanese government conditions any Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon on “the verified disarmament” of Hezbollah.