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Calls for revenge
President Trump told reporters at the White House on July 6, 2026, as funeral ceremonies for Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei were underway across Iran, that he "thinks the third regime [in Iran] is more reasonable" than its two predecessors, adding "but we'll find out."
At the same time, the Iranian regime was ramping up calls for his assassination to avenge Khamenei, with the MEMRI account saying such calls peaked during Khamenei's funeral ceremonies that began July 4.
MEMRI describes Iranian media conveying the exhortations to all sectors of society, including displays of hanging Trump in effigy and crowds pelting a banner with his portrait with bottles and rocks during the funeral ceremonies.
The MEMRI article also says the regime sought to connect the fight against President Trump and the U.S. with Shi'ite blood vengeance tied to the 680 CE Battle of Karbala and the appearance of the Mahdi, the "Hidden Imam."
In an example it cites, IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency published a poster on July 12, 2026, featuring a blood-red image of President Trump with a bullet entering his left eye and text in English reading: "Iranian people: 'Our word is one! Revenge! Revenge!'"
Officials vow action
At his weekly press conference, Esmaeil Baqaei told reporters that "The pursuit of justice and revenge for the martyred Leader" is a serious national demand.
Ba qaei said the Foreign Ministry is part of a broader national effort to hold those responsible accountable and will use all available international legal and diplomatic instruments to pursue justice, while also describing domestic legal measures including filing lawsuits on behalf of families of those martyred or injured.
Mehr News AgencyThe Al Jazeera-style framing is not present in these sources, but the MEMRI account says senior regime officials reiterated calls for assassinating Trump from the stage at events and through state print and broadcast media and social media accounts.
In a separate statement carried by MEMRI, Majlis speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf was reported to have said on July 6 during the funeral proceedings that "Those who have supported their [Islamic] revolution for 47 years have been shouting every".
The Mehr News Agency account adds that a senior general said revenge against the murderers and those who ordered the assassination of the martyred Imam and the martyred children of Iran "will never be forgotten."
What comes next
The Tasnim account says Ayatollah Seyed Mojtaba Khamenei, Leader of the Islamic Revolution, declared after the funeral and burial ceremonies that avenging the blood of his father and all those martyred in the two recent wars had become an irreversible national commitment.
“Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony in Tehran's Grand Mossala to commemorate the martyred Leader on Tuesday evening, the senior general said: The country's defense positions are announced in general and mainly by the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters and the General Staff of the Armed Forces, and the Army and the IRGC are also responsible for informing about operational events of the war”
It further says Mojtaba Khamenei pledged in a message issued following the funeral ceremonies that the legacy of the martyred Leader would be preserved and that the blood of Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei and other martyrs would be avenged.
Mehr News Agency reports that the senior general said punishment of perpetrators would contribute to strengthening deterrence, restoring national security, regional security, and global security.
In Kerman, Hojjat ol-Islam val-Moslemin Aman-Allah Alamiradi, the representative of the people of Kerman in the Assembly of Experts, said at a memorial ceremony hosted by the Police Command of Kerman Province that "The least retaliation for the blood of our martyred leader is the destruction of global arrogance."
The MEMRI account ties these vows to a broader religious framing, describing Khamenei being cast as the "martyr imam" and the demand for vengeance as a sacred religious duty, with the regime emphasizing Paradise and the status of defender of Islam.
