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Dozens of senior Iranian clerics have reportedly signed a statement calling for the assassinations of President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a report published Tuesday by The Telegraph.
The British newspaper reported that approximately 63 members of Iran’s 88-member Assembly of Experts signed a 10-point statement declaring the two leaders “mahdour al-dam,” an Islamic legal term generally interpreted to mean a person whose blood is considered forfeit or who deserves to die.
According to The Telegraph, the statement described killing “the criminal American president” and “the wicked prime minister of the Zionist regime” as a religious duty, adding that anyone with the opportunity to carry out such an act “must not” neglect it. The report said the statement also characterized avenging the killing of Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as “paramount.”
The newspaper reported that the declaration stopped short of being a formal fatwa because, under Shiite Islamic tradition, such rulings are issued by individual clerics rather than groups. It also reported that the Assembly of Experts’ secretariat later distanced itself from the statement while acknowledging that roughly 63 members had signed it.
The reported statement coincided with coverage in the Iranian state-run newspaper Hamshahri, which featured Trump on its front page Tuesday beneath the headline “Revenge Is Certain.” According to The Telegraph, the accompanying article highlighted calls by senior clerics and lawmakers for retaliation following Khamenei’s death.
The article reportedly included a quotation attributed to Grand Ayatollah Abdullah Javadi Amoli urging the shedding of Trump’s blood, as well as discussion of parliamentary proposals to offer a 50 million euro reward for killing the U.S. president.
The Assembly of Experts is responsible under Iran’s constitution for appointing and supervising the country’s supreme leader. Following Khamenei’s death during the opening U.S.-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, previous reports indicated the body selected Mojtaba Khamenei, the late leader’s son, as his successor.
U.S. officials have long accused Iran of plotting against Trump. In 2024, federal prosecutors charged a Pakistani national with alleged ties to Iran in a murder-for-hire scheme that authorities said was connected to Iranian efforts to retaliate for the 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani.
