WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has claimed Washington could eliminate Iran’s remaining leadership with “one shot” during the funeral ceremonies of late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but said he would not do so as the US wanted to keep negotiations with Tehran open.
“They are all there. One shot and we can take them all out, but we are not going to do that because then we would have nobody to negotiate with,” Trump told Axios, adding that Iran was “begging to make a deal”.
Trump said the two sides had agreed to pause talks for a week until Khamenei’s funeral proceedings conclude, during which neither side would launch attacks. He also mocked the public mourning in Iran, saying he was surprised to see Iranians crying for Khamenei. “Maybe it’s fake tears,” he said.
The remarks drew a sharp response from the Iranian embassy in Armenia, which posted on X: “You don’t understand these things because you have neither civilisation, nor history, nor honour.”
Khamenei, who ruled Iran for 36 years, was killed in joint US-Israeli airstrikes on February 28, triggering a wider conflict in West Asia. His funeral ceremonies began in Tehran on July 3 and are scheduled to conclude on July 9 with burial in his hometown, Mashhad. Events are also planned in Qom and neighbouring Iraq.
Millions of Iranians have taken part in the funeral processions, with senior officials, including Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, seen weeping during the farewell ceremony.
Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, will not attend his father’s funeral ceremonies due to severe security concerns, his representative in India, Ayatollah Hakim Elahi, told ANI. He said continued Israeli threats and heightened surveillance risks had made Mojtaba’s public attendance “dangerous”.
Before the ceremonies began, senior Iranian military commander Ali Abdollahi warned the US and Israel against any military move targeting Iran, saying its armed forces would respond harshly to any threat or aggression. Araqchi also warned that Tehran would respond immediately and firmly to any threat against its people or leadership.
The warnings came after Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz publicly declared that Mojtaba Khamenei was “marked for death”.
