Overview
- The Assembly of Experts published a 10‑point statement in late June that framed killing President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a religious duty and said revenge for the February killing of Ali Khamenei was “paramount.”
- Reporting says 63 of the Assembly’s 88 members put their names to the document, which described Trump as “the criminal American president” and Netanyahu as “the wicked prime minister of the Zionist regime.”
- Iranian state‑linked outlets amplified the message, with the Tehran newspaper Hamshahri running a front‑page image of Trump in crosshairs under a headline reading “Revenge is certain.”
- US and Israeli officials issued stern public responses, including warnings of possible military action, but coverage so far does not report any immediate retaliatory strikes.
- The public assassination call raises the risk to the fragile US‑Iran memorandum, complicates ongoing nuclear talks and IAEA verification plans for September, and highlights deep splits between Iran’s hardliners and more pragmatic leaders.