Iran says Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu must pay the price for the death of Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an air strike in February. Photo / Getty Images
Iran is discussing placing bounties on Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.
The country’s Parliament is set to vote on a bill offering rewards for the assassination of the United States and Israeli leaders following February’s strikes on Iran that killed Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader.
Ebrahim Azizi, the chairman of Iran’s national security commission, said the body was preparing a bill titled “Reciprocal action by military and security forces of the Islamic Republic” that would formalise payment of €50m ($85m) to any individual or entity who kills Trump or Netanyahu.
Meanwhile, Iran has handed an updated peace proposal to the US, according to a senior US official cited by Axios. The source said, however, that the proposal did not represent a meaningful improvement on Tehran’s previous position.
“We are really not making a lot of progress. We are at a very serious place today. The pressure is on them to be responsive in the right way,” the official said, according to the outlet.
The US wants to see a serious conversation over Iran’s nuclear programme, they added. “If that’s not going to happen, we will have a conversation through bombs, which will be a shame.”
The proposed bounty legislation in Iran marks an escalation from previous bounties and threats, moving assassination calls from religious fatwas and propaganda campaigns into formal parliamentary action, amid the ongoing ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran.
Trump said last year that if Iran attempted to act on death threats against him, the United States would issue “very strict orders” to “wipe them off the face of the Earth”.
Azizi said Iran considers Trump, Netanyahu and Admiral Brad Cooper of US central command responsible for the February 28 strike that killed Khamenei and must face “confrontation and reciprocal action”.
Mahmoud Nabavian, another member of the national security commission, separately announced that Parliament would soon vote on setting rewards for whoever “sends Mr Trump and Netanyahu to hell”.
He said threats had been made against Mojtaba Khamenei, the current Supreme Leader, and warned that if military attacks on Iran resume, the response would be “devastating”.
The threat is the latest in years of Iranian officials calling for Trump’s assassination. Private bounty campaigns have collected funds alongside official threats.
A campaign called “Blood Covenant” announced it raised more than US$27m for Trump’s assassination.
Iran’s foreign ministry has reported that peace talks brokered through Pakistan are progressing, with several rounds of proposals exchanged over recent days.
Esmaeil Baghaei, a spokesman, told reporters in Tehran that the day after Iran submitted its response to an earlier US proposal, “we were presented with a set of counter-proposals from the other side”.
He added: “Over the past few days, these were reviewed, and our response has, in turn, been delivered. Negotiations through the Pakistani intermediary are ongoing.”
Iranian media reported that US conditions included no payment of war reparations to Iran, the surrender of 880lb of enriched uranium, maintaining only a single nuclear facility, payment of less than 25% of Tehran’s frozen assets and making a ceasefire conditional on continued negotiations.
Fars news agency warned that “even if Iran fulfils these conditions, the threat of US and Israeli attacks will remain in place”.
However, the US has agreed to waive oil sanctions during the negotiation period, Iranian media claimed.
Iran’s conditions include ending the war on all fronts, particularly Lebanon, lifting all sanctions, releasing frozen funds, compensation for war damages, and recognition of Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.
The US and Israeli attacks have destroyed gas capacity, power plants, petrochemical facilities and steel mills.
Mohsen Rezaei, a former Revolutionary Guards commander, warned that “if Trump also fails to understand that a blockade is simply a continuation of war, the world’s military commanders certainly do – only the battlefield has gone silent”.
Trump warned Iran that there would be “nothing left” of the country if its leaders did not agree to a peace deal with the US.
“For Iran, the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them,” the US President wrote on his Truth Social platform. “TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!”
Meanwhile, Netanyahu was given permission to skip his criminal trial after lawyers said he had to attend “all-day security meetings”.
Coming the day after he held a phone call with Trump about the Iran war, it has fuelled speculation that Israel is preparing for an imminent return to the conflict.
Government sources are briefing that both Israel and the US believe a pre-emptive strike by Iran is possible, and are therefore at a heightened state of defensive readiness.
Ultimately, the decision to recommence hostilities will be Trump’s alone and, despite protestations to the contrary by Netanyahu, Israeli decision-makers have not been allowed in the inner loop of White House thinking since the early weeks of the war.
Netanyahu is thought to be keen to return to war given that the campaign has failed to achieve any of Israel’s stated objectives.
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