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Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif paid his respects at the coffin of late Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Friday, state TV footage showed.Shahbaz, whose country has been mediating US-Iran talks to permanently end their conflict, was accompanied by Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir and a delegation as they visited the coffin.Shahbaz and Munir led a high-level delegation on Friday to pay their respects to Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, who was killed in airstrikes on the first day of the US-Iran war, as his funeral rites commenced in Tehran.The delegation was received by Iran’s entire senior leadership, including the president, foreign minister and parliament speaker, as it arrived to attend the funeral rites.According to the Pakistani Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Shahbaz recalled the “lasting contributions” of the late supreme leader for Islam and paid rich tribute to Khamenei, who the prime minister said guided the Iranian nation for decades with “remarkable wisdom and sagacity.””The prime minister expressed full solidarity with Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, President Dr Masoud Pezeshkian and the brotherly people of Iran in this moment of national grief and prayed to Allah Almighty for forgiveness of the departed leader,” it said, adding that Shahbaz subsequently departed for Istanbul for his official visit to Turkey.The prime minister was earlier received by Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Iran Imran Ahmed Siddiqui, and senior Pakistani and Iranian diplomatic officials upon arrival at Mehrabad Airport.Munir was received by Iran’s defence minister Seyyed Majid Ibn Reza, interior minister, and senior civilian and military officials upon his arrival.The delegation accompanying the prime minister included National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, PPP Secretary General Nayyar Bukhari, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, and other parliamentarians, who will also attend the funeral ceremony.Agencies
