A powerful general who leads Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards emerges from hiding as Tehran prepares for a dayslong funeral for the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Photos published online by Iranian state media show Gen. Ahmad Vahidi attending a meeting about the funeral of Khamenei, 86, then sitting alongside his casket, as Iran’s theocracy held a smaller service for him Thursday night near the supreme leader’s former home in downtown Tehran.
Vahidi has become a major player in formulating Iran’s tough stance in negotiating a possible permanent end to the war with the United States, experts say. He is believed to be part of a small clique in direct contact with Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who remains in hiding after being reportedly wounded in the February 28 Israeli strikes that killed his father, the elder Khamenei, on the first day of the US-Israeli war with Iran.
Vahidi himself hasn’t been seen publicly since February 8, weeks before the Iran war began.
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