The US lawmaker said that Pakistan is “no better qualified to ‘mediate’ this than the Hamas-harbouring Qataris”.
US Senator Rick Scott has raised questions over Islamabad’s mediator role in the US-Iran ceasefire deal, accusing Islamabad of “hypocrisy” after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif attended Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s funeral in Tehran.
Scott shared a video on X where Sharif is heard giving tribute to the 86-year-old Shia cleric, who was killed on February 28 on the first day of the US-Israeli war against Iran, at his funeral in Tehran. The footage showed Sharif describing Khamenei as “a great scholar and leader whom millions of Muslims will remember.” He further claimed, “Pakistan and Iran will march together under all circumstances.”
What US Lawmaker Said
In the post accompanying Sharif’s clip, the US lawmaker revisited Pakistan’s endorsement of terror in the past and claimed that Washington is keeping a close eye on Islamabad.
“We need to remember who Pakistan really is in the middle of all this. We’re talking about a country where bin Laden hid out for a decade, where they selectively enforce lopsided blasphemy laws to persecute Christians, and where the prime minister just praised the genocidal mass-murdering tyrant that used to run Iran,” he said in the post.
Scott added that Pakistan is “no better qualified to ‘mediate’ this than the Hamas-harbouring Qataris.”
“Islamabad should take note; we’re watching closely.”
Ali Khamenei’s Funeral
Thousands of people took to the streets on Tuesday in the Iranian holy city of Qom during a fourth day of marathon funeral proceedings for late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Ayatollah’s remains are lying in state at the Jamkaran Mosque in Qom, a holy city that houses Shia Islam’s most influential seminaries and shrines.
Aerial footage broadcast by state television showed the streets of Qom — home to about 1.5 million people — packed with mourners.
A prayer service was held inside the mosque by Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, a 93-year-old ayatollah and influential conservative Shia figure in the Islamic republic. The massive crowd at the service chanted in unison, “death to America”, a rallying cry frequently heard at official gatherings in Iran.
Other television footage showed mourners, including clerics wearing turbans, paying their respects at the coffins of Khamenei and four relatives killed alongside him, including a granddaughter reportedly only 14 months old.
A procession then followed with a truck carrying the bodies towards the mausoleum of Fatima Masumeh, the sister of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia imam, a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed.
The previous day, a lengthy funeral procession in Tehran drew huge crowds, with authorities keen to project an image of strength and unity following the war and after massive, bloody anti-government protests across Iran six months ago. Iranians flooded the streets of the capital in an event comparable to the 1989 funeral of Khamenei’s predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic republic.
Another funeral procession is scheduled to be held on Wednesday in neighbouring Iraq, which is home to a large Shia community.
The final burial of Khamenei, who ruled Iran for over three decades until his death at the age of 86, will take place on Thursday in his hometown of Mashhad, a holy city in the north-east of the country.
