Calls to Kill Trump Resound in Funeral Prayers for Khamenei

Iran's top officials and brothers of the country's new supreme leader emerged into public view Sunday to attend funeral prayers for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, signaling a new confidence in their safety as calls grew for the killing of President Trump. Their presence before hundreds of thousands of people in Tehran would have been unthinkable during the Iran war, in which airstrikes killed the 86-year-old Khamenei, his family members, and other officials in the opening moments of US-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28. Israel also targeted others who appeared publicly during the war, the AP reports, in at least one case likely using their public appearance to fix their position for a strike.

But Iran's new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, was not seen. He is believed to be in hiding after being wounded in the airstrike that killed his father. Israel has threatened to kill him as well as he leads a theocracy now negotiating with the US over a permanent end to the war and over Iran strangling traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting global energy supplies. Ziba Naderi, a 42-year-old nurse attending the funeral Sunday, is waiting for word from Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. "I heard the call for revenge, but our leader should say what we need to do," she said. "And we must listen to him."

Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani, a 97-year-old Shiite cleric, led prayers for Khamenei and his late family members. Attending were Khamenei's sons Masoud, Meysam and Mostafa, who hadn't been seen since the war began. Revolutionary Guard head Gen. Ahmad Vahidi could be seen in the crowd, flanked by plainclothes security forces. President Masoud Pezeshkian, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, and Esmail Qaani, who leads the Guard's expeditionary Quds Force, also attended. Posters and graffiti at the Grand Mosalla called for killing Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mohammad Rasouli, a poet who emceed the event prior to the prayers, elicited calls of "Death to America!" and "Death to Israel!" At one point, Rasouli said, to cheers, that "the world is no longer a good place for" Trump. It was the first, direct threat to Trump's life by an official during the funeral.