South Korea skips Khamenei funeral after Iran withdraws invitation

Iran invited South Korea to the funeral of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, then withdrew the invitation, it has emerged.

The South Korean government did not attend the funeral held Friday (local time) in Tehran.

"We had received an invitation and the mission was prepared to attend, but Iran told us at the last minute that attendance by the mission would be difficult due to venue constraints and other reasons," a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said. "So we ended up not attending."

Iran appears to have revised its policy to accept condolences only from high-level delegations traveling from abroad, rather than from locally based diplomatic missions.

There is also speculation that the South Korean government accepted Iran's policy change partly out of consideration for its relationship with the United States, given that Iran had not sent invitations to most Western countries.

Senior officials from Iran-friendly nations attended the funeral in large numbers, including He Wei, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress; Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council; and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Gen. Asim Munir.