Iran Paper Names Trump, 12 Others as Targets for Revenge

www.newsmax.com

A conservative Tehran newspaper has published an infographic naming President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and 11 other Western leaders as targets for revenge over the killing of former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, escalating the rhetoric from Iran's ruling establishment as new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei used his first public message in weeks to vow retaliation.

As of Sunday, however, the newspaper's list has not been formally endorsed by the Iranian state.

The Hamshahri daily, owned by the Tehran municipality, posted the graphic online late Saturday, pairing photographs of 13 foreign officials with a statement from Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father after Ali Khamenei was killed on Feb. 28, the first day of the U.S.-Israeli air campaign against Iran.

The image did not run in the paper's Sunday print edition.

Along with Trump and Netanyahu, the infographic named British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

Reporting from JFeed identified additional figures pictured, including Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, and CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper.

Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since before the war and was reportedly wounded in the strikes that killed his father, said in the accompanying statement that "vengeance is the will of our nation and must inevitably be carried out."

He added that those he called criminals "will take to their graves the wish of a peaceful death in their beds."

The message, his first since his father's funeral this week, said retaliation would not depend on his own presence, with "individuals among the freedom-seekers across the world" carrying out what he described as a divine mission.

The new supreme leader's statement cited a list of individuals Iran had compiled for targeting but did not name them, and the AFP wire noted there was no indication that the Hamshahri graphic reflected an officially sanctioned target roster.

An earlier Hamshahri front page roughly two weeks ago showed Trump alone in a rifle scope's crosshairs under the same "revenge" framing, published as U.S. envoys traveled to Doha for indirect contacts with Iranian officials.

The European inclusions reflect Iranian grievances during the war, when Tehran accused European governments of failing to condemn strikes on its territory and of complicity for permitting U.S. military aircraft to transit their airspace.

The Israel Defense Forces previously warned that any successor to Ali Khamenei would be treated as a legitimate target, a posture that continues to shape the security calculus around Mojtaba Khamenei's public silence and the Tehran-owned Hamshahri's escalating rhetoric.

Jim Thomas

Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.

© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.