Netanyahu: ‘Iran wants President Trump and me dead’

PM says Iran’s threats to assassinate him and Trump are real and serious; praises Trump as Israel’s best friend in the White House.

David Brummer, World Israel News

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran is actively threatening to assassinate him and U.S. President Donald Trump.

In an interview on Wednesday with Fox Business, Netanyahu warned that these threats must be taken seriously.


“I think this is very serious,” Netanyahu said.

“They mean it. They are threatening to murder him and murder me.”

He added that Iran’s leadership is “an enemy of America” and “everything we stand for.”

The comments came amid reports that Iranian clerics had issued religious decrees, or fatwas, calling for the killing of both leaders.

At least ten state-appointed clerics reportedly supported the move.

One, Mansour Emami, offered a reward of 100 billion tomans—about $1.14 million—for Trump’s assassination.

An Iranian website, thaar.ir, claimed it had raised over $20 million in donations to support the killing.

The site’s figures could not be independently verified.

Iranian clerics have a history of inciting violence against perceived enemies, according to Iran International.

In 1989, then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against British author Salman Rushdie.

Although Rushdie lived under protection for decades, he was stabbed and permanently injured in 2022 in New York.

More recently, hardline cleric Alireza Panahian called on Muslims to retaliate for threats against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during the latest Gaza war.

He used the term mohareb, or “enemy of God,” to describe Netanyahu and Trump—a label that can justify a death sentence under Islamic law.

Two senior Iranian clerics, Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi and Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamedani, issued their own fatwas against the two leaders.

The declarations have since been endorsed by other religious figures, including Ahmad Alamolhoda, Khamenei’s representative in Iran’s Razavi Khorasan Province.

Netanyahu said the Iranian people deserve better. “They are held hostage by a regime that threatens the world,” he said.

Despite these developments, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian distanced his government from the clerical rulings.

In an interview aired Monday with U.S. commentator Tucker Carlson, Pezeshkian said, “They have not issued decrees or fatwas against any individual or against Donald Trump. It has nothing to do with the Iranian government.”

Still, Netanyahu said the Iranian regime itself cannot be trusted and dismissed the idea that a nuclear deal with Iran could be effective.

“I would agree to removing sanctions only if there’s a good agreement,” he said, but added, “I don’t think such an agreement is possible with this regime.”

During the Fox interview, Netanyahu praised Trump’s role in the Abraham Accords and other peace efforts, including between India and Pakistan and Rwanda and the Congo.

https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1942421989886459982?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw 

He said he has recommended Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Trump is the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House,” he said.

Netanyahu also said a hostage release deal is close and promised that all remaining captives would be freed.

He compared allowing Hamas to stay in power in Gaza to leaving the Nazi SS in place after World War II.