Iranians loyal to the regime called for the assassination of President Trump during the funeral procession for slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday.
Footage from the streets of Tehran showed a group of sycophants honoring Khamenei by hurling stones at a billboard that showed Trump with a bullet aimed at his head — and the loyalists are demanding vengeance.
“The US killed our father,” the banner read. “We won’t let you go!”
REUTERS
Many on the streets could also be seen marching in the procession with placards that read, “KILL TRUMP,” in bold lettering with pictures of the American president.
Groups could also be seen marching with long banners that carried the same message against Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Others also held ominous boards depicting Trump, Netanyahu, Vice President JD Vance, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — all of whom had crosshairs of a gunsight on them with the words, “There will be blood.”
Calls for revenge for the slain Khamenei have grown in recent days, with Iran’s most senior clerics calling for the assassinations of both Trump and Netanyahu last week.
The 88-member Assembly of Experts issued a 10-point statement in which it said killing “the wicked prime minister of the Zionist regime” and “the criminal American president” was a religious duty that must be carried out “under any circumstances.”
The statement was issued just two days after hardliners in the assembly claimed it was a moral obligation for anyone with access to Trump to take revenge “on American soil.”
Iran and the US currently have a cease-fire in place for Khamenei’s six-day funeral procession, which began on Friday in a national procession led by the slain ayatollah’s casket.
Khamenei’s coffin, which was displayed in the holy city of Qom, will travel to two Shi’ite shrine cities near Iraq before returning for a burial in Mashhad, officials said.
The supreme leader was killed in Israel airstrikes within the first hours of the Iran War. The strikes also badly wounded his son, Mojtaba Khamenei and killed his family.
Mojtaba, whom US intelligence believes is “probably gay,” took over the top role from his dad and is believed to have strong ties to the hardline Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
He has not been seen in public since the war began.
Trump said over the weekend that peace talks with Iran had been delayed for a week by the funeral ceremonies. On Monday he reiterated that the US would either reach a deal with Iran or “finish the job,” renewing his threat of military action.
Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said on Monday that the elder Khamenei had been killed because he led a program to destroy Israel.
“Any Iranian leader who will again try to pursue plans to destroy Israel will be killed as well,” Katz said.
While Tehran was filled with thousands of mourners on Monday, analysts — and even senior Iranian officials — cautioned that the crowd size cannot be equated to a popular endorsement of continued theocratic rule.
“If anyone’s thinking this is a litmus test for the popularity of the Islamic Republic, history tells us otherwise. It’s a funeral, and Iranians do funerals very well,” said Ali Ansari, professor of modern history at St. Andrews University in Scotland.
Reuters spoke to people attending the rallies who said they were only there as spectators or were motivated by a sense of religious duty in a country of strong Shi’ite Muslim tradition, rather than to display political allegiance.
