Foreign delegations from around the world are in Tehran to take part in the farewell and funeral ceremonies of martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, paying tribute at the Grand Musalla alongside Iranian officials and mourners.

Speaking to Tasnim news agency on Friday, a senior source said that over the past 5 days, “the US officials at the highest levels had launched a comprehensive campaign to dissuade countries from attending the ceremony to pay tribute to the martyred leader.”

According to the informed source, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had emphasized in a confidential instruction on June 26 to all embassies and diplomatic missions of the US that “all recipients of this instruction are obliged to use all capacities of the United States to justify the host country’s authorities that their participation in the funeral ceremony of the Iranian leader will be considered as an unfriendly act and will have negative consequences for their bilateral relations with the United States.”

Two Arab diplomats said on the condition of anonymity that Marco Rubio has personally discussed the matter with counterparts from at least five Arab countries.

US ambassadors to African countries also explicitly threatened that if they attended the funeral of the Martyred Leader, US development aid to these countries might be cut off.

It is said that the reason for the decision by a major North African country to reduce the level of participation in the funeral ceremony was the concern about the consequences for its bilateral relations with the United States.

According to assessments, at least 13 countries, including three Eastern European countries, five African countries, two Persian Gulf Arab countries, and two major East Asian countries, withdrew from attending the ceremony under the pressure from the United States.

Some of the countries that decided not to participate due to US pressure have tried to ask for apology and tried to justify their decisions by sending messages through intermediaries or through their diplomatic missions in Geneva and New York.

Also, some of these countries introduced their diplomats in Tehran to attend the ceremony, which was rejected by Iran.

DID/TSN