Abstract
<jats:p>Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s funeral functions as a geopolitical roll call of the emerging Middle East–Eurasia order. This policy brief analyzes the event through three analytically distinct maps: state-diplomatic participation, religious authority, and state–wider response divergence. It argues that the funeral reveals a network rather than a bloc, composed of strategic partners, mediators, corridor actors, hedgers, bridge nodes, and autonomous powers. The analysis shows that the gap between expected and actual participation—including absence, downgraded representation, and expanded participation—can be more revealing than attendance alone. Pakistan emerges as a particularly important cross-system bridge node, while Chinese, Russian, Indian, Central Asian, South Caucasian, and other forms of participation illustrate calibrated support, strategic restraint, and the growing importance of connectivity. The brief further examines uncorroborated reports of external pressure on governments not to attend and argues that, if such pressure affected participation, the funeral itself became part of a wider contest over post-conflict legitimacy. The emerging regional order is therefore defined not by a new bipolar division or Iranian-led bloc, but by partial alignment, strategic connectivity, network position, and contested autonomy.</jats:p>