US President Donald Trump threatened Iran with devastating retaliation over the weekend after the funeral of slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei drew open, public calls for his own killing, an exchange of threats that has laid bare just how fragile the interim deal ending the two countries’ war has become.
Trump’s threat, posted to Truth Social, came after senior U.S. officials demanded Friday that Iran publicly declare the Strait of Hormuz open and pledge that ships crossing the waterway would no longer come under attack. “1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat, pronounced in many corners of the Globe, to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME!” Trump wrote, adding that the U.S. military would “completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran — PRAISE BE TO ALLAH!”
Hours later, Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, responded in a written statement carried by state television, framing revenge for his father’s death as an unavoidable national obligation rather than a mere threat. “Revenge is the demand of our nation and must certainly be carried out,” the statement read, according to Fars news agency, adding, “Soon, the free people of the world will carry out a part of this divine mission.”
A Funeral That Became a Rallying Cry Against Trump
The duelling threats followed the conclusion of a dayslong, nationwide funeral procession for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at 86 in the airstrike that opened the U.S.-Israeli war on February 28. His body was carried through five cities across Iran and Iraq before his burial Thursday at the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad, Iran’s holiest Shia site, marking the end of six days of public mourning.
Throughout the ceremonies, mourners repeatedly displayed posters and banners calling for Trump to be killed alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to NPR. Neither the United States nor Israel targeted any of the funeral sites during the ceremonies, even as the imagery of mass crowds calling for the American president’s death circulated widely.
Conspicuously absent from every stage of his father’s funeral was Mojtaba Khamenei himself, who has not appeared publicly, nor released any photo or audio recording, since the war began. Sources previously told NBC News that the 56-year-old was seriously wounded in the same February strike that killed his father, though Iranian officials have downplayed reports of his injuries. All statements issued in his name as the country’s new supreme leader, including Sunday’s vow of revenge, have come only in written form.
Washington’s Scepticism of Iran’s New Leader
Trump has made little secret of his contempt for the younger Khamenei’s ascension. He told Axios in the weeks after the succession that Iran’s choice of leader was unacceptable to him.
“Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran,” Trump said at the time, according to Time, having pushed for direct American involvement in selecting Iran’s next leader, a role he compared to the US posture following the capture of Venezuela’s former president earlier this year. Trump has separately dismissed Mojtaba as a “lightweight,” accusing Tehran of squandering time on an unacceptable successor.
That antagonism has only deepened since Mojtaba’s formal statement vowing vengeance, further souring already dim prospects for reviving the memorandum of understanding both countries signed last month to formally end the war.
Treasury Escalates Financial Pressure on the New Leader
The Trump administration paired its rhetorical threats with a fresh round of economic pressure targeting Mojtaba Khamenei’s inner circle. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions against Ali Ansari, an Iranian financier the agency said oversees a sprawling global network of assets benefiting the new supreme leader and other regime elites, in direct response to Iran’s renewed attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent framed the sanctions as part of a broader effort to isolate Iran’s leadership as it faces mounting internal strain. “The so-called Supreme Leader is hiding in seclusion while his regime crumbles,” Bessent said in a statement, adding that the department would “continue using every tool at its disposal to isolate him and other regime elites from the global financial system.”
Iran Refuses to Yield on the Strait
At the centre of the standoff remains the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passes before the war began. Tehran has so far declined to make the public commitment Washington is demanding, insisting instead that the strait remain under exclusive Iranian control and that vessels transiting it be required to pay fees, a position that upends decades of international precedent treating the corridor as an open, international waterway.
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, warned that Tehran would abandon the memorandum of understanding altogether if American strikes continued. Iran’s foreign ministry has separately accused Washington of violating the same agreement by revoking waivers that had allowed Iran to sell crude oil on international markets, a measure the US imposed in direct response to this week’s attacks on commercial shipping.
A Deal Buckling Under Its Own Contradictions
The current standoff reflects the same underlying volatility that has repeatedly threatened to collapse the ceasefire since it was signed: attacks in the strait triggering US retaliation, followed by uncertain claims about who within Iran’s fractured government actually ordered them. US officials have said the latest round of strikes on commercial vessels came from what they described as a rogue faction of Iranian hard-liners attempting to sabotage the truce, even as Iran has publicly insisted its theocracy remains unified under Mojtaba Khamenei’s leadership.
Trump has shown little patience for that distinction. According to officials briefed on the matter, he has directed US forces to respond with overwhelming force regardless of which faction within Iran’s government is responsible for any given attack, a posture intended to signal that consequences will follow no matter the internal politics driving Tehran’s actions.
Where the Ceasefire Stands Now
Despite the extraordinary threats exchanged over the weekend, both sides have signalled at least nominal interest in continuing talks. Trump said early Friday that the United States and Iran had agreed to keep negotiating even as he declared the ceasefire itself “over.” At the same time, Iranian officials have disputed his characterisation of how those talks came about, with sources in Tehran’s foreign ministry denying that Iran had requested to restart negotiations.
With Oman continuing to mediate discussions over the strait’s status and Qatar and Pakistan working parallel diplomatic channels, the coming days are likely to determine whether the fragile framework reached last month can survive its latest, and perhaps most personal, escalation, one now defined not just by military strikes, but by direct threats exchanged between an American president and a supreme leader who has yet to be seen or heard from in public since the war began
