Iran is moving towards placing huge bounties on the heads of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.
Its parliament is set to vote on whether to offer a €50million (£43.5m) reward to anyone who assassinates either the President of the United States or Israel’s prime minister.
This is being considered in revenge for the killing of its own Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, in US-Israel strikes at the start of the current conflict.
The chairman of Iran’s national security commission, Ebrahim Azizi, said parliament was cooking up a bill called ‘Reciprocal action by military and security forces of the Islamic Republic’.
He wrote: ‘As Trump ordered the killing of Ali Khamenei, he himself should be dealt with by every Muslim and every free person,’ according to Iranian state television.
A state-sanctioned bounty would mark an escalation of previous death threats issued against the leaders, whom Iran considers to be principally responsible for Khamenei’s death.
Both leaders have already been the object of fatwas issued by Iranian religious leaders.
These intensified after the outbreak of conflict at the end of February, with multiple calls from Iranian clerics for Muslims worldwide to avenge Khamenei’s death.
Iran’s parliament is considering a bill that would place a £43.5million bounty on Donald Trump’s head
There would also be a reward of the same size offered for the assassination of Benjamin Netanyahu, in revenge for the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
Mr Trump said last year that any attempt by Iran to take him out would prompt ‘very strict orders’ to ‘wipe them off the face of the Earth’.
Another member of Iran’s national security commission also announced the imminent vote, boasting that the reward being considered would be for sending ‘Mr Trump and Netanyahu to hell’.
Mahmood Nabavian wrote: ‘Threats against the Supreme Leader and military commanders have again been heard from the filthy mouths of some enemy officials.
‘The vile American and Zionist officials, as well as the heads of regional countries, should know that if any aggression takes place this time, we will destroy them along with their palaces.’
Meanwhile, a ‘full-scale’ American attack on Iran, planned for today, was narrowly averted after Mr Trump changed his mind at the eleventh hour.
He stood down US forces after Middle Eastern leaders personally pleaded with him to have one more go at negotiating a nuclear deal.
Mr Trump announced on Truth Social that he would ‘not follow through’ with the strike, as he doubled down on his conviction that Iran cannot obtain a nuclear bomb under any peace agreement.
The President agreed to stand down after lobbying from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as well as the rulers of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Ebrahim Azizi, chairman of Iran’s national security commission, said Trump ‘should be dealt with by every Muslim and every free person’
‘I have been asked… to hold off on our planned Military attack of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was scheduled for tomorrow,’ Trump wrote.
He said that ‘serious negotiations are now taking place’ and that America’s Gulf allies believe that a deal can be struck ‘which will be very acceptable’ to the United States.
‘This Deal will include, importantly, no nuclear weapons for Iran! Based on my respect for the above mentioned Leaders,’ Trump added.
Trump noted that he had instructed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and the US Army to stand ready for a ‘full, large-scale assault’ on Iran if no deal is reached.
Hegseth, in a stark break from Pentagon norms, is currently in Kentucky campaigning for Ed Gallrein against Trump’s nemesis, Rep. Thomas Massie.
For Iran’s part, they have handed an updated peace proposal to the US, according to a senior American official cited by Axios.
However, the official said the offering made little improvement on Tehran’s previous position.
They told the news outlet: ‘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 US wants to see a serious conversation about Iran’s nuclear programme and, failing that, it will ‘have a conversation through bombs, which will be a shame’, the source added.
