Iranian clerics have issued a statement calling for the assassination of President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a report Tuesday by The Telegraph. The declaration was signed by dozens of members of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the clerical body responsible for appointing the country’s supreme leader.

The British newspaper reported that a 10‑point statement, signed by approximately 63 of the 88 members of the clerical assembly, declared Trump and Netanyahu “mahdour al‑dam” – an Islamic legal term signifying that their blood is forfeit and they deserve 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 do so “must not” neglect it.

The statement further emphasized that avenging the February killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was “paramount”. The Telegraph noted that the statement stopped short of a formal fatwa, as under Shiite Islamic tradition such religious rulings are issued by individual clerics rather than groups. The newspaper also reported that the Assembly of Experts’ secretariat later distanced itself from the statement, despite acknowledging that about 63 members had signed it.

The report comes as the state‑run Iranian newspaper Hamshahri featured Trump on its front page Tuesday under the headline “Revenge Is Certain,” alongside an article highlighting calls by senior clerics and lawmakers for retaliation over Khamenei’s death. The article included a quotation attributed to Grand Ayatollah Abdullah Javadi Amoli urging the shedding of Trump’s blood, as well as references to parliamentary proposals offering a 50 million euro reward for killing Trump.

The Assembly of Experts is an 88‑member body of Islamic jurists responsible under Iran’s Constitution for appointing and supervising the country’s supreme leader. According to previous reports following Khamenei’s killing in the opening U.S.-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, the body selected his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, as his successor.

The reported statement comes despite a memorandum of understanding signed earlier this month by the United States and Iran establishing a 60‑day framework for negotiations aimed at reaching a broader agreement following the conflict. Iran has long been accused by U.S. officials of plotting to target Trump. Federal authorities in 2024 charged a Pakistani man with ties to Iran in an alleged murder‑for‑hire scheme that prosecutors said was connected to Iranian efforts to retaliate for the 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani.