Tehran, Jul 05 (V7N) — Iran's semi-official Tasnim News Agency has claimed that the United States exerted diplomatic pressure on at least 13 countries to discourage them from attending the funeral of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In a report published on Saturday, Tasnim alleged that several countries in Eastern Europe, Africa, the Gulf region and East Asia ultimately decided not to send official representatives to the funeral ceremony in Tehran following pressure from Washington.
According to the report, some of those governments later sought to explain their absence to Iranian authorities through diplomatic channels.
Citing an unnamed senior source, Tasnim claimed that the United States had conducted a "coordinated diplomatic campaign" over the previous five days aimed at discouraging foreign delegations from participating in Khamenei's funeral.
The report further alleged that on June 26, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio instructed American embassies and diplomatic missions worldwide to inform host governments that Washington would view participation in Khamenei's funeral as an "unfriendly" act that could negatively affect bilateral relations with the United States.
Tasnim also quoted two unnamed Arab diplomats as claiming that Rubio personally discussed the matter with the foreign ministers or senior officials of at least five Arab countries, urging them not to send representatives to Tehran.
Additionally, the report alleged that U.S. ambassadors in several African countries warned local governments that attending the funeral could put American development assistance programmes at risk.
However, Tasnim did not provide documentary evidence or publicly verifiable proof to support its claims. The U.S. State Department has not issued any official response regarding the allegations.
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