Iran’s supreme leader for 36 years died in the opening strikes of the U.S.-Israel war on Iran. On June 18, Trump and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding setting a 60-day clock for a final deal.
Those talks are now paused — not for negotiations, but to bury the man America’s war machine killed.
‘Trump’s killing is our duty.’
The six-day mourning period kicked off Friday, July 3. Foreign delegations arrived in Tehran, including Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who, at the funeral, called deceased Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “a great scholar, a great leader” and said Pakistan and Iran would “march together under all circumstances.”
He has otherwise avoided taking a side, telling reporters in June that Iran’s leaders “genuinely mean to promote peace in the region” and that Trump is “a man of peace.”
By Sunday, the tone at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla turned from grief to open threat. Eulogist Mohammad Rasouli asked the crowd why “the most despicable man in the world” was still alive, calling the crowd to chant “Trump’s killing is our duty.” According to Newsweek, banners read “Kill Trump” and “Kill Bibi,” a reference to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Fox News reported that mourners pelted an image of Trump with stones, in footage it obtained from Iranian state media; one poster read “There will be blood.” Mourner Fatima Hassan told Fox: “We are here for revenge.”
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Majid Saeedi/Getty Images
Trump weighed in from Mount Rushmore on the eve of America’s 250th anniversary, saying the U.S. had “knocked the hell out of Iran” and gave Tehran “a week off for a funeral.” In a separate Axios interview, he said the U.S. wouldn’t strike Iran’s assembled leadership since it would leave “nobody to negotiate with.”
Speaking separately from the Oval Office on Monday, he warned the U.S. could knock out Iran’s power plants and bridges within hours if Tehran won’t make a deal.
New supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei hasn’t appeared publicly since the strike that killed his father, amid unconfirmed speculation about his security or health.
Netanyahu disputed reports of a rift with Trump, saying they see “eye to eye” 99% of the time and Iran won’t get a nuclear weapon, “deal or no deal.” He also urged Trump not to readmit Turkey to the F-35 program, calling Ankara’s government “infected by the Muslim Brotherhood” — a request Trump appears set to ignore, with Erdoğan already claiming at the summit that he had been promised five of the jets.
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