Foreign delegations attend Khamenei farewell ceremony in Tehran

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Thursday that avenging former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei meant freeing Muslims from what he described as oppression by the United States and Israel.

"Without a doubt, avenging the martyred leader of the revolution means nothing other than freeing all Muslims from the oppression of the United States and the Zionist regime," Ghalibaf said during a meeting with senior Amal Movement official Khalil Hamdan, according to Iranian state media.

Ghalibaf also said Muslims and Shi'ites should preserve their unity, calling it "the great lesson" from Khamenei's leadership.

US Representative Joe Wilson said on Thursday the planned funeral for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would bring together what he described as anti-American actors from around the world, including Georgian president Mikheil Kavelashvili.

"Dictator Khamenei’s funeral draws together all of the worst America haters from around the world, as the Georgian Dream’s fake President Mikheil Kavelashvili plans to attend to deepen the rabidly anti-American pact between Iran and the Georgian Dream," he posted on X.

Iranian lawmaker Meisam Zohourian said on Thursday Iran’s banking network was hit by a new attack over the weekend that temporarily disrupted interbank services, adding that another disruption had occurred earlier in the week.

Zohourian said the incident was likely a cyberattack, possibly backed by a foreign state, adding it affected kernel and middleware layers of banking systems, warning that heavy reliance on foreign technology and limited domestic infrastructure increases vulnerability to such operations.

"Unfortunately, while the definitive cause of the disruption has still not been identified, a new attack on the banking network infrastructure occurred on Saturday of this week, which disrupted interbank services for several hours to prevent the attack's impact from escalating," he posted on X.

Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, chief of staff of Iran’s Army, said on Thursday that the United States launched about 1,200 missiles and bombs against Iranian forces, but that the attack did not shake morale or cause the country to collapse.

"In the third war, which lasted 40 days, the enemy-drawing on experience from earlier conflicts-believed that if it targeted Iran’s Supreme Leader, the country and its people would collapse within three to five days and allow the enemy to occupy the nation," official media cited Sayyari as saying.

"In all three wars, the enemy wrongly assumed it could easily enter Iranian territory and seize the country’s provinces," he added.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) deployed special forces along Iran’s Persian Gulf coast to identify in advance vessels using the Oman-side route through the Strait of Hormuz, sources familiar with the matter told Iran International.

The IRGC operatives are also seeking access, through Omani sources, to the schedules and coordination details of ships passing through the southern route of the Strait of Hormuz, the sources said.

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