Trump targeted by Iranian death fatwas as watchdog group demands immediate sanctions response

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Counterterrorism expert says Iranian sleeper cells might be hiding ‘in plain sight’

Counterterrorism expert Jonathan Gilliam said Iranian sleeper cells might be hiding "in plain sight" as Iran has issued threats against America.

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FIRST ON FOX – A new report by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is urging the U.S. government to impose sanctions on senior Iranian clerics and regime-controlled institutions that have issued or promoted Islamic legal rulings — known as fatwas — calling for the torture and assassination of President Donald Trump, other American citizens and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The fatwas invoke the Islamic charge of mohareb — “waging war against God” — a term in Iran’s penal code that mandates brutal punishments, including crucifixion and cross-amputation, under the regime’s interpretation of Sharia law.

“Today UANI is exposing the individuals and entities in Iran hiding behind religion to foment terrorism abroad. Threats against the president of the United States and other Americans are a federal crime. Each of these individuals and entities should be sanctioned, indicted, and banned from travel, along with their families, to the United States and its allies,” a joint statement by former Gov. Jeb Bush, UANI’s chairman, and Ambassador Mark Wallace, its CEO and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. for Management and Reform, told Fox News in a statement.

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President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on the South Lawn before boarding Marine One and departing the White House on July 1, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“The last fatwa against another American citizen, Salman Rushdie, almost cost him his life, with him being stabbed by an Iranian regime sympathizer. It is time to ensure that those who threaten Americans face the full force of the law.”

UANI’s new list identifies 11 individuals and two regime-aligned entities that have not been sanctioned under U.S. counterterrorism laws. The organization is calling for all of them to be designated as Specially Designated Global Terrorists under Executive Order 13224, which is reserved for those engaged in or supporting terrorism.

Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, second from left, looks at a turban being carried by a cleric during a turban-wearing ceremony at a seminary in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, Iran, on Feb. 8, 2024. (Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Among the top targets is Ayatollah Naser Makarem-Shirazi, a powerful cleric known as the “Sultan of Sugar” for his domination of Iran’s lucrative sugar trade. Makarem-Shirazi has called for President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu to be executed under mohareb, which he interprets to include torture before death.

Another senior figure, Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamedani, a student of Ayatollah Khomeini who served as his representative in Europe from 1979 to 1980, has issued a series of threats against the Jewish community over the years. He has also issued fatwas targeting Trump and Netanyahu. UANI warns that such rulings amount to the incitement of terrorism.

“These aren’t abstract religious statements,” Jason Brodsky, UANI’s policy director, told Fox News Digital. “They’re targeted threats by regime officials against the president of the United States. The U.S. should respond accordingly—with sanctions, law enforcement action, and immigration reviews.”

Former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, right, and Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, secretary general of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought, look on during the 28th International Islamic Unity Conference in the capital Tehran, Iran on Jan. 7, 2015. ( Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

The list also includes Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, the supreme leader’s former representative to the United Kingdom and head of the Islamic Center of England, which has been used as a platform to export the Islamic Revolution in Europe.

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Araki this month threatened President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu, saying “their lives and property are no longer protected. The U.S. government and president are now considered a hostile infidel government by all Muslims.”

Brodsky emphasized that Araki’s background illustrates how Iran uses religious institutions in the West to export its revolutionary ideology. “This raises serious concerns about how the regime spreads radicalism through so-called religious charities abroad,” Brodsky said.

Another cleric, Alireza Panahian, is tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and is described by UANI as a key architect of Iran’s extremist ideology of Mahdism — which promotes the annihilation of Jews and the destruction of Israel as prerequisites for the return of the Hidden Imam. He has vocally advocated for terrorist attacks on U.S.-led forces in the Middle East and beyond.

Kiran Desai and Salman Rushdie speak onstage at The Center for Fiction 2023 Annual Awards Benefit at Cipriani 25 Broadway on Dec. 5, 2023 in New York City. (Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for The Center for Fiction)

UANI is also calling for counterterrorism sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), the regime’s state-run television network. According to the report, IRIB aired programming that promoted a $10–$20 million bounty on President Trump’s head and solicited donations to fund the assassination.

The IRIB TV studio in Tehran was bombed by the Israeli Air Force during the 12-day war.

UANI also targeted the Qom Seminary, Iran’s top religious training center, for publicly endorsing and pledging to implement the fatwa against Trump and Netanyahu. The seminary’s faculty and students reportedly signed statements declaring their intent to propagate the decree.

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“We only have to remember what happened to Salman Rushdie to see how these fatwas can inspire real-world violence,” Brodsky said, referring to the 2022 knife attack that left the author blind in one eye. “Now these same incitements are being directed at President Trump while he’s in office.”

Efrat Lachter is an investigative reporter and war correspondent. Her work has taken her to 40 countries, including Ukraine, Russia, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, and Afghanistan. She is a recipient of the 2024 Knight-Wallace Fellowship for Journalism. Lachter can be followed on X @efratlachter.