Iran's most powerful man had been off the public stage for months. Now Tehran is putting him on display - in a coffin, draped in the flag, together with part of his family.

From July 4 to 9, Iran is holding a multi-day funeral procession for supreme leader Ali Khamenei and several members of his family, who according to the official version died in late February, in the first phase of the war between Iran, the US and Israel. The coffins are on display in the great „Imam Khomeini” mosque in Tehran, draped in Iranian flags, and the authorities expect millions of people to fill the streets. Among the dead, besides Khamenei himself, are his son-in-law, eldest daughter, daughter-in-law and a fourteen-month-old grandchild - a detail the regime uses to reinforce the image of a family struck by the enemy.

But behind the grandiose staging hides a question Tehran doesn't want to say out loud: who really rules now? Officially, the new supreme leader is Mojtaba Khamenei, the late leader's son. The problem is that he has stayed hidden from the public ever since the attack and has so far not appeared even at the private ceremony for his wife. His possible appearance at the funeral would give him legitimacy; his absence, on the other hand, fuels speculation about his health and about whether he's really holding the strings at all.

The funeral is also a diplomatic performance. Representatives from around 100 countries are expected - among them the Pakistani prime minister, Chinese and Indian delegations, even representatives of the Taliban government. Negotiations between the US and Iran are paused for the duration of the mourning and will resume afterward. In other words, while millions grieve, diplomacy waits in the corridor with a watch in hand.

For the Balkans, this isn't just a distant Middle Eastern drama. When a regime turns the death of its leader into a mass show of power and unity, that's an old and familiar method - grief as political fuel. The question is whether Iran is entering a more unpredictable phase now that the man who for decades was synonymous with the regime is gone and his successor is in hiding. And when the most powerful figure in a state hides, that is rarely a sign of strength.