Christopher Helali, an American journalist and analyst based in Russia, said Tuesday that the streets of Qom had been filled with mourners for hours as the funeral procession for the martyred Leader passed through the city.
“Once again, more than one million people have taken to the streets,” Helali told IRNA in an eyewitness account from Qom.
“You can clearly see the passion, devotion, and love of the people for the Leader.”
He said the scale of the turnout offered a clear answer to what the martyred Leader meant to Iranians and to people beyond Iran's borders.
“He was truly a man of the people, someone who dedicated his life to justice and solidarity with the oppressed,” Helali said.
“I have never in my life witnessed a funeral of such magnitude and grandeur.”
Helali said the atmosphere was deeply emotional, noting that the coffin had passed directly in front of him after leaving a mosque in Qom.
He said the United States and the Israeli regime had targeted the martyred Leader because of his strength, steadfastness, and rare dignity.
“For him, Palestine was always the compass, as was the freedom of all oppressed nations, whether in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, South Africa, Korea, or Cuba,” Helali said.
He predicted that the martyred Leader would be remembered in history as one of the greatest revolutionary leaders and thinkers, adding that the days of mourning now unfolding in Iran made clear that his standing extended far beyond the country's borders.
“Trump and Netanyahu failed to achieve their goals and objectives,” he concluded.
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July 7, 2026, 8:42 p.m.
News ID: 86203500
Qom, IRNA – An American journalist anf analyst covering the funeral procession for the martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in Qom said Tuesday that the massive turnout demonstrated the late Leader's standing was never confined to Iran, a reality, he said, that the United States and Israeli regime had failed to reckon with.