TEHRAN, JUN 13: Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled the country for nearly 37 years before being assassinated by Israeli and US airstrikes on February 28, will be buried on July 9, state television reported Saturday.

The burial in his hometown, the northeastern holy city of Mashhad, initially scheduled for March but postponed due to the war, will follow three days of funeral ceremonies in capital Tehran beginning July 4 and another in the holy city of Qom on July 7, it said.

July 4, the start date of the national funeral, will coincide with the United States’ Independence Day, which this year celebrates its 250th anniversary.

Ali Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, succeeded him as supreme leader in early March, the third since the establishment of the Islamic republic in 1979.

Mojtaba Khamenei, wounded in the strikes that killed his father and numerous other officials, has not appeared in public since his appointment and communicates only through statements attributed to him.