Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
Iran is holding a huge funeral for its leader, Ali Khamenei. He was killed in February with four family members.
Millions of people are walking in the streets of Tehran to say goodbye to him.
President Trump said the United States will not attack Iran during the funeral. He called it a week off.
But Trump also said the US could remove Iran's leaders with one shot. Iran is very angry about these words. Leaders from Pakistan, China, and India came to the funeral too.
- funeral
- a ceremony held when someone has died
- mourner
- a person who is sad about a death and attends a funeral
- leader
- a person who is in charge of a country or group
- comment
- something a person says about a topic
- angry
- feeling strong displeasure
- attack
- to use force against someone
- dignitary
- an important official person
- bury
- to place a dead body in the ground
Level 2 — Elementary
Iran is in the middle of a massive, multi-day state funeral for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed along with four family members in a US-Israeli strike on his compound in February.
Officials say between 15 and 20 million mourners could take part before the week is over, which would make it the biggest state funeral in the country's history.
President Trump told reporters that the US is giving Iran a week off from military action so the funeral can continue safely.
In more candid remarks reported by Axios, Trump also said the US could theoretically eliminate Iran's gathered political leadership in one shot, but will not, because Washington still needs someone to negotiate with. Iranian officials called the comment shameful, and foreign dignitaries including Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, along with representatives from China and India, still attended. Khamenei is scheduled to be buried in Mashhad on July 9.
- state funeral
- an official public funeral organized by a government for an important figure
- compound
- a group of buildings enclosed within a single boundary
- candid
- honest and direct, without holding back
- theoretically
- in a way that is possible in theory but not necessarily done
- negotiate
- to discuss something in order to reach an agreement
- shameful
- deserving strong criticism or embarrassment
- representative
- a person chosen to speak or act on behalf of others
- scheduled
- planned to happen at a particular time
Level 3 — Intermediate
Iran's dayslong state funeral for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, killed alongside four relatives in a February US-Israeli strike on his compound, has drawn a level of mourning officials say could reach 15 to 20 million people, potentially the largest state funeral the country has ever staged.
President Trump publicly framed the pause in hostilities as a courtesy, telling reporters the United States was giving Iran a week off so the ceremonies could proceed without interruption.
Yet in more unguarded remarks to Axios, Trump acknowledged that Washington could, in principle, eliminate Iran's assembled political and religious leadership in one shot, explaining that the administration prefers to preserve the possibility of future negotiations rather than remove the very officials it might eventually need to negotiate with.
Iranian officials denounced the comment as neither civilized nor honorable, even as foreign dignitaries, including Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and representatives from China and India, proceeded with their visits. The former supreme leader is due to be buried in Mashhad on July 9, following a week of processions through Tehran, Qom, Najaf, and Karbala.
- hostilities
- acts of warfare or armed conflict
- courtesy
- a polite gesture or act of consideration toward others
- unguarded
- said without careful control, more revealing than intended
- in principle
- in theory, though not necessarily in actual practice
- administration
- the executive branch of a government under a particular leader
- denounce
- to publicly condemn something as wrong
- procession
- an organized group moving forward in a formal, ceremonial way
- religious
- relating to belief in and worship of a god or gods
Level 4 — Advanced
Iran's sprawling state funeral for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, killed in February alongside four relatives in a US-Israeli strike on his compound, has evolved into a spectacle of national mourning that officials project could draw 15 to 20 million participants, a scale that would eclipse any funeral the Islamic Republic has previously staged.
President Trump's public framing of the accompanying military pause, a rhetorical week off granted so the ceremonies might unfold undisturbed, sat uneasily alongside far blunter remarks he offered Axios, in which he conceded that Washington could, in principle, annihilate Iran's assembled leadership in a single strike, yet has chosen not to, on the calculation that a negotiating partner eliminated is a negotiating partner foreclosed.
That candor was not well received in Tehran, where officials condemned the comment as possessing neither civilization nor honor, framing it as confirmation of an adversary who treats diplomacy as contingent on restraint rather than principle.
Nevertheless, the arrival of foreign dignitaries, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chief among them, alongside envoys from Beijing and New Delhi, signaled that the funeral's diplomatic choreography would proceed largely undisturbed by Washington's rhetoric. The week-long procession, threading through Tehran, Qom, Najaf, and Karbala, is set to culminate in Khamenei's burial at Mashhad on July 9, a finale intended to project continuity even as the identity of Iran's actual successor remains conspicuously unresolved.
- spectacle
- a visually striking public event or display
- eclipse
- to surpass or overshadow something in significance
- rhetorical
- relating to language used for effect or persuasion rather than literal meaning
- annihilate
- to destroy completely
- foreclosed
- prevented or ruled out in advance
- candor
- the quality of being open and honest in speech
- adversary
- an opponent or enemy
- choreography
- the careful arrangement or planning of a sequence of events
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