Iraq seeks rapprochement between Iran and US, PM says

AFinnish supermarket group has found itself unexpectedly drawn into Ali Khamenei’s funeral ceremonies after footage from Iraq appeared to show his coffin being unloaded from a refrigerated truck carrying K-Group branding.

The scene, filmed in Karbala and circulated by Reuters, showed a large crowd surrounding a refrigerated truck marked with orange-and-white logos resembling those of Finland’s K Group, part of the retail giant Kesko. Men in dark clothing then pulled a coffin from the frosted rear compartment and carried it above the crowd.

The footage was filmed during the Iraqi leg of Khamenei’s funeral processions, which moved through Najaf and Karbala before his planned burial in Mashhad on July 9.

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IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News on Thursday published images it said showed Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani at Mashhad airport as the coffin of supreme leader Ali Khamenei arrived for funeral ceremonies.

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European Parliament member Hannah Neumann said on Thursday that Iran's future would be shaped by people "who, despite everything, continue to resist," following the burial of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

"Khamenei leaves behind a country scarred by repression, fear & isolation," Neumann wrote on X. "But he also leaves behind something he could never destroy: #WomanLifeFreedom."

"The dictator is gone. The struggle for a free Iran is not," she said.

A US strike hit a railway bridge in northern Iran used on trade routes linked to China and Russia, IRGC-affiliated Fars News reported on Thursday.

The report said cruise missiles targeted the railway bridge in Aqqala county, Golestan province, calling it a strategic point on the China-Turkmenistan-Iran rail corridor.

The report said Russia had used the route to move goods since last year and that Chinese train traffic on the line had tripled after the maritime blockade.

Iran’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that Tehran would not allow US attacks and breaches of a memorandum of understanding with Washington to affect its national interests, after condemning new US strikes on Iranian territory.

The ministry said US forces had attacked three locations in Iran’s southern coastal provinces and two bridges on a railway route toward Mashhad in eastern Iran over the past 48 hours.

It said the attacks violated the UN Charter and breached the first clause of the MoU with US.

The ministry also accused Washington of using alleged incidents involving foreign ships in the Strait of Hormuz as a pretext to justify what it called continued failure to honor the MoU.