Iran’s supreme leader was absent from the Ayatollah’s funeral as senior officials attended.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was conspicuously absent from his father’s funeral, as thousands of top regime officials paid their respects to the late Ayatollah on Sunday.

Ali Khamenei’s three other sons – Masoud, Mustafa and Maysam – all attended the service on Sunday, along with President Masoud Pezeshkian and the head of the Revolutionary Guards, Ahmed Vahidi.

Speculation about Mojtaba’s condition – fueled by rumors in the United States and Israel that he was injured in the same airstrike that killed his father – has continued because he has not been seen in public since his inauguration in early March.

The elder Khamenei He ruled the Islamic Republic from 1989 until his death.

The official funeral for the late supreme leader began with events planned across Iran and Iraq next week.

12-20 million people are expected to attend what Iranian officials are calling the “funeral of the century.”

Khamenei’s body lies in state in Tehran’s Grand Mosala religious compound, with a funeral service led by prominent Shiite cleric Jafar Sobhani, a 97-year-old scholar who taught in seminaries in the holy city of Qom.