&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Iranian hardline cleric calls for death penalty to protesters, threatens Trump")
Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a hardline cleric leading Friday prayers in Iran’s capital, Tehran, demanded the death penalty for protesters detained in a nationwide crackdown and directly threatened US President Donald Trump. Khatami’s sermon, carried by Iranian state radio, sparked chants from those gathered for prayers, including, “Armed hypocrites should be put to death!” Executions and killing of peaceful protesters are two red lines laid down by Trump for possible military action against Iran. Protests began on December 28, 2025, over Iran’s ailing economy and turned into protests challenging the country’s theocracy.
Iranian authorities cut off access to the internet on January 8 and intensified a crackdown on dissent, which the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reports has killed at least 2,677 people.
‘Protesters butlers of Netanyahu, Trump’s soldiers’
Khatami, appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a member of both the country’s Assembly of Experts and its Guardian Council, described the protesters as the “butlers” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “Trump’s soldiers”.
“They should wait for hard revenge from the system,” Khatami said of Netanyahu and Trump. “Americans and Zionists should not expect peace.”
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Khatami, known for his hardline views, had issued a fatwa calling for the death of writer Salman Rushdie in 2007. He also threatened Israel in a 2018 speech by saying Iran could “raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground” with its missile arsenal.
His fiery speech at Friday prayers came as allies of Iran and the US alike sought to defuse tensions.
The Trump administration has warned it will act if Iran executes detained protesters. Iran and the US traded angry accusations on Thursday at a session of the United Nations Security Council, with US ambassador Mike Waltz saying that Trump “has made it clear that all options are on the table to stop the slaughter”.
Gholam Hossein Darzi, the deputy Iranian ambassador to the UN, slammed the US for what he said was American “direct involvement in steering unrest in Iran to violence”.
‘Hundreds of mosques damaged in protests’
Khatami also said that hundreds of mosques have been damaged in the protests. He claimed that 350 mosques, 126 prayer halls, and 20 other holy places were damaged during the protests.
As a public cleric, Khatami would have access to such data from authorities, and mentioning it at Friday prayers means that the Iranian government wanted the information to be disseminated without having to formally address the public.
