Iran's top clerics issue public order for Muslims to assassinate Donald Trump

Iran’s most senior clerics have called for the assassination of Donald Trump, urging Muslims to kill the US President as a religious duty. Members of the Assembly of Experts said the killing of the “criminal American president” must “not be neglected under any circumstances” in a 10-point statement.

They also called for the death of Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who they described as “the wicked prime minister of the Zionist regime”, The Telegraph reports. The order came after Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the conflict in the Middle East, which broke out in February with US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

The pact set out a 60-day period for the two sides to negotiate a truce and resolve issues including the future of Iran’s nuclear programme. However, strikes on the Strait of Hormuz and Israel’s military operations in Lebanon have already put the tentative ceasefire in jeopardy.

They said it was “obligatory upon any duty-bound person who gains access to these criminals to send them to hell”, but stopped short of issuing a formal fatwa.

Fatwas are generally issued by individual clerics rather than groups, with the Assembly an 88-member organisation constitutionally tasked with choosing and the supreme leader.

US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner arrived in Doha, Qatar, for talks with mediators this week, alongside Iranian negotiators.

While Iran and the US agreed as part of an interim deal to allow ships to pass through the Strait uncharged for 60 days, Tehran insisted it must control the routes of the vessels and later charge fees for passage, upending decades of practice in the vital waterway.

The US and a number of Gulf Arab states said they will not agree to the charges, and an effort by Oman and a United Nations (UN) agency to launch a new route near Oman’s shore sparked attacks across the Middle East last weekend, highlighting the tensions still gripping the region.

Iranian state television reported on Wednesday that a foreign container ship had run aground in the Strait. The Revolutionary Guard’s navy said it has “repeatedly warned captains, shipowners and officials of shipping companies around the world that any entry or exit through routes other than the ‘Route of Authority’ in the Persian Gulf could lead to irreparable incidents”.