A hardline Iranian cleric close to Iran’s Supreme Leader called on Muslims to kill US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in response to their threats against Ali Khamenei.
“Anyone who tries to kill or threatens to kill Supreme Leader Khamenei is a mohareb (enemy of God),” said Alireza Panahian on Monday, expressing support for recently issued fatwas (religious decree) by senior Shiite clerics.
“Every Muslim anywhere in the world must be willing to give their life and take action to kill them.”
Khamenei has been in a hidden location since the start of the war between Iran and Israel, fearing Israeli assassination attempts. He has not been seen in public, even after the ceasefire between the two countries.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on June 16 that killing Khamenei would not “escalate the conflict” but rather “end it.”
Donald Trump said last week that he refused to target Khamenei, despite knowing his exact location.
“I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the US Armed Forces—by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World—terminate his life,” Trump posted on social media.
On Sunday, Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi and Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamedani issued separate fatwas against Trump and Netanyahu.
Shirazi said in his statement: “Any regime or individual threatening the leaders of the Islamic Ummah (nation) and acting on those threats qualifies as a mohareb.”
Panahian called on Muslims around the world to implement the decrees without delay: “These grand ayatollahs have taken a major step by issuing a mohareb ruling against someone who has threatened the Supreme Leader.”
“No one will delay or hesitate anymore in eliminating them. The ruling of mohareb is a matter of great magnitude,” he said.
Under Shiite jurisprudence, the declaration of mohareb and the issuance of a fatwa make it religiously obligatory for devout Shiite Muslims to act.
In 1989, Iran’s former leader Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against British author Salman Rushdie for allegedly blaspheming Islam in his novel The Satanic Verses.
Despite living under heavy security for decades, in 2022 Rushdie was stabbed by an assailant in New York—an attack widely linked to Khomeini’s earlier fatwa.
