Bihar Governor Syed Ata Hasnain Mos Pabitra Margherita Represent India Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Funeral Iran

Bihar governor Syed Ata Hasnain and Minister of State for External Affairs Pabitra Margerita will be representing India at the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran next month, The Indian Express has learnt. They will be accompanied by officials from the Ministry of External Affairs.

Last month, Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian had sent a formal invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the funeral ceremonies, to be held between July 4 and 9. However, as per those in the know, it may be a scheduling issue considering the Prime Minister already has a big multi-nation visit planned around the same dates.

Khamenei was killed in a US-Israeli air strike on Tehran on February 28. The formal invitation, on behalf of Pezeshkian, was sent to the Ministry of External Affairs last Tuesday by the Iranian Embassy in New Delhi.

In 2024, after Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were killed in a helicopter crash, then Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar had visited Tehran to represent India.

Modi is among the world leaders who have received formal invitations on behalf of Pezeshkian – leaders of China, Russia, Qatar, France and Pakistan too have been sent invitations. Last Friday, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced that a Pakistani delegation would be attending the funeral.

On Tehran’s part, with the invite coming right after the signing of the US-Iran MoU, it may be a signal to New Delhi of their continued reliance on India as an important civilizational and strategic partner despite shifting dynamics in West Asia.

During the months of the military conflict, India and Iran had continued their bilateral dialogue, even as India prioritised a balanced approach to the conflict. While Iran’s foreign minister Syed Abbas Aragchchi had visited India last month for the BRICS meet, their energy minister also visited India last week for the BRICS energy ministers meet.

Modi’s last official bilateral visit to Iran was in May 2016, when he had met Khamenei and then President Hassan Rouhani to sign a trilateral agreement – it included Afghanistan – for the development of the Chabahar Port.

Two years later, in February 2018, Rouhani made an official visit to India, at the invitation of Modi, when he visited New Delhi and Hyderabad.

Modi and Pezeshkian last met on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, in October 2024. Modi had invited Pezeshkian to visit India.

Divya A reports on travel, tourism, culture and social issues - not necessarily in that order - for The Indian Express. She's been a journalist for over a decade now, working with Khaleej Times and The Times of India, before settling down at Express. Besides writing/ editing news reports, she indulges her pen to write short stories. As Sanskriti Prabha Dutt Fellow for Excellence in Journalism, she is researching on the lives of the children of sex workers in India. ... Read More