Iran state TV says 35 people have been killed, 48 injured in a stampede that erupted at the funeral procession for Qassem Soleimani.
Iran is “ready to come back to full compliance” with its nuclear deal with world powers, deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said, according to a tweet from the Foreign Ministry, though the post did not provide any information on possible conditions.
Iran announced on Sunday it would abandon limitations on enriching uranium, taking a further step back from commitments to a 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers, but said it would continue to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog.
Meanwhile, the remains of Soleimani, a top Iranian military commander who was assassinaed last week in an air strike in Baghdad by the United States, have arrived in his hometown of Kerman for burial later on Tuesday.
State television broadcast live images of thousands of people in the streets of Kerman, many dressed in black, to mourn Soleimani’s death.
Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, was killed along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi), an Iran-backed umbrella organisation comprising several militias. Several other people were also killed in Friday’s attack.
The move by the US has drawn condemnation from international leaders and officials who fear that tensions in the region could escalate drastically. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that “a harsh retaliation is waiting”.
On Saturday, US President Donald Trump threatened to hit 52 Iranian sites “very hard” if Iran attacked US citizens or assets.
