Iranian clerics call for Trump and Netanyu 's assassination

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Iranian clerics have called for the assassinations of President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement signed by dozens of members of the country's Assembly of Experts, The Telegraph reported Tuesday.

The British newspaper reported that a 10-point statement signed by about 63 members of the 88-member clerical body declared Trump and Netanyahu "mahdour al-dam," an Islamic legal term generally referring to someone whose blood is considered forfeit or who deserves to die.

According to The Telegraph, the statement said killing "the criminal American president" and "the wicked prime minister of the Zionist regime" was a religious duty and that anyone who had the opportunity to do so "must not" neglect it. The report said the statement described avenging the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in February as "paramount."


The Telegraph reported the statement stopped short of a formal fatwa because, under Shiite Islamic tradition, such religious rulings are issued by individual clerics rather than groups. The newspaper also reported that the Assembly of Experts' secretariat later distanced itself from the statement, although it said about 63 members had signed it.

The report came as the state-run Iranian newspaper Hamshahri featured Trump on its front page Tuesday beneath the headline "Revenge Is Certain," alongside an article highlighting calls by senior clerics and lawmakers for retaliation over Khamenei's death.

The article included a quotation attributed to Grand Ayatollah Abdullah Javadi Amoli urging the shedding of Trump's blood and another section describing parliamentary proposals to offer a 50 million euro reward for killing Trump.

The Assembly of Experts is an 88-member body of Islamic jurists responsible under Iran's Constitution for appointing and supervising the country's supreme leader. According to previous reports in the wake of Khamenei's killing in the opening U.S.-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, the body selected his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, as his successor.

The reported statement comes despite a memorandum of understanding signed earlier this month by the United States and Iran establishing a 60-day framework for negotiations aimed at reaching a broader agreement following the conflict.

Iran has long been accused by U.S. officials of plotting to target Trump. Federal authorities in 2024 charged a Pakistani man with ties to Iran in an alleged murder-for-hire scheme that prosecutors said was connected to Iranian efforts to retaliate for the 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

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