India Sends Bihar Governor and Minister to Represent PM at Khamenei Funeral
Bihar Governor Syed Ata Hasnain and Minister of State for External Affairs Pabitra Margerita will represent India at the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran next month. They will be accompanied by officials from the Ministry of External Affairs, sources confirmed.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had formally invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the ceremonies, scheduled from July 4 to 9. However, scheduling conflicts due to a planned multi-nation visit by the Prime Minister around the same dates led to the decision to send senior representatives instead.
The funeral proceedings will begin in Tehran on July 4, with burial set for July 9 in Khamenei’s hometown of Mashhad. The burial was originally scheduled for March but was postponed due to regional conflict.
In 2024, after Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian died in a helicopter crash, then-Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar represented India in Tehran.
Modi is among world leaders invited by Pezeshkian, including leaders of China, Russia, Qatar, France, and Pakistan. Last Friday, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif confirmed a Pakistani delegation would attend.
The invitation follows the signing of a US-Iran memorandum of understanding, signaling Tehran’s continued reliance on India as a strategic partner despite shifting West Asian dynamics. India and Iran have maintained bilateral dialogue during recent military conflicts, with India pursuing a balanced approach. Iran’s Foreign Minister Syed Abbas Aragchchi visited India last month for the BRICS meet, and Iran’s energy minister visited last week for the BRICS energy ministers meet.
Modi’s last official bilateral visit to Iran was in May 2016, when he met Khamenei and then-President Hassan Rouhani to sign a trilateral agreement on the Chabahar Port. Rouhani visited India in February 2018. Modi and Pezeshkian last met on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, in October 2024, where Modi invited Pezeshkian to visit India.
