Bangladesh Speaker Leaves for Iran to Attend Khamenei Funeral

Bangladesh Parliament Speaker Hafizuddin Ahmad left Dhaka for Tehran on Thursday morning to attend the funeral of Iran's late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Ahmad departed from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 7:30 am and is scheduled to return to Bangladesh on July 4.

Ayatollah Khamenei, 86, was killed in a joint US-Israeli airstrike on February 28. Born on April 19, 1939, in Mashhad, Iran, he was a pivotal figure in the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution. He briefly served as Defense Minister in 1980 and supervised the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during the Iran-Iraq War. Khamenei later served as Iran’s president before being elected Supreme Leader by the Assembly of Experts in 1989 following the death of Ruhollah Khomeini.