A senior Iranian cleric has called for the assassination of U.S. President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and other Israeli officials, calling them “Enemies of God.”

Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, a leading Shiite cleric in Iran with authority to issue legal rulings under Islamic law, has issued a fatwa — an Islamic legal decree — escalating regional tensions and offering religious justification for violence against Western and Israeli leaders.

As Newsweek rightly notes, the development highlights the Islamic Republic’s ongoing use of religious decrees as political tools — a strategy Iran has long used to project power beyond its borders.

While a fatwa is not legally enforceable, it can influence judicial decisions in countries with Sharia-based legal systems.

Khosro K. Isfahani, senior research analyst at the National Union for Democracy in Iran wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the fatwa issued by Shirazi against Trump was similar to the murder fatwa issued against the author Salman Rushdie for his novel The Satanic Verses which led to a number of assassination attempts.

Fatwa Targets U.S. and Israeli Leadership

Shirazi’s ruling singles out Trump, Netanyahu, and senior Israeli officials for death, framing the call as a divine imperative. While fatwas lack direct enforcement mechanisms outside of Islamic law, they carry significant weight among hardline elements and militias aligned with Tehran.

The fatwa comes on the heels of a fragile U.S.-brokered ceasefire that followed a 12-day conflict involving Israel, Iran, and the United States.

At the height of the fighting, President Trump declared that the U.S. knew the whereabouts of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, calling him an “easy target” — though he added Khamenei was safe “for now.” Around the same time, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued his own threat, saying that Khamenei should be assassinated.

As Newsweek reporters Brendan Cole and Shane Croucher add, “Shirazi said anyone who threatens the Leader or Marja is considered ‘an enemy of God’ and reminded Muslims and Islamic states that it would be ‘haram’ (forbidden) to stand in support of the enemy.”

They continue:

“It is necessary for all Muslims around the world to make these enemies regret their words and mistakes,” the fatwa said.

Isfahani said on X that the fatwa had been signed and sealed responding to an Estefta (formal query) and was significant because it directly named Trump and that “unlike the nonexistent Fatwa against nukes, this one is real.”

Not Shirazi’s First Outrageous Decree

Shirazi, known for issuing rulings against smoking and even banning women from attending soccer matches, has a long record of using his clerical position to shape Iranian social and political norms.

Critics say the fatwa resembles Iran’s infamous 1989 ruling against author Salman Rushdie, which led to a decades-long threat on Rushdie’s life and culminated in a violent stabbing in 2022 that left the writer blind in one eye.

Comes Amid Pattern of Threats Against U.S. Officials

This latest fatwa doesn’t come in a vacuum. It follows reported Iranian-backed plots targeting Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — both of whom played key roles in the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the targeted killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Qasem Soleimani in 2020.

While the White House has not yet responded to Shirazi’s declaration, U.S. officials have previously acknowledged ongoing threats from Iranian actors against Trump-era leaders.

What This Means Going Forward

Even if symbolic, Shirazi’s call could inspire real-world violence — and it’s likely to complicate diplomatic efforts in the region, particularly as Tehran faces renewed scrutiny over its nuclear ambitions and destabilizing activity across the Middle East.