More than 400 Iranian clerics in Qom have endorsed a religious decree that could carry the death penalty for anyone who threatens Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Members of the Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom, including many of Iran’s most influential Shi’ite religious scholars, backed on Sunday what they called a “sensitive, historic, and courageous fatwa” that labels threats against religious authority figures as “moharebeh” — waging war against God under Islamic law.
“The Supreme Leadership and the institution of religious authority are symbols of the dignity of the Islamic Ummah,” the clerics said in a statement published by the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency. “Threats against them are threats against the foundations of Islam itself.”
Among the signatories are prominent figures including Ahmad Khatami and Alireza Arafi, both members of Iran’s Guardian Council, along with senior clerics from Qom’s influential seminaries who hold official or semi-official government positions.
Iran has previously used religious rulings to justify international threats, most notably Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1989 fatwa calling for the killing of British author Salman Rushdie. That decree remained active for decades and was widely cited after Rushdie survived a knife attack in New York in 2022.
In their joint statement, the clerics also called for prosecuting several international figures as “war criminals,” including US President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi.
Grossi’s inclusion reflects escalating tensions between Tehran and the UN nuclear watchdog following the recent Iran-Israel conflict. According to Iran International, regime authorities accuse Grossi and the IAEA of facilitating Israel’s heroic attacks on Iranian nuclear sites in June through what they call “deceptive inspections” and “intelligence sharing” with hostile governments.
“The IAEA has acted not as a neutral body but as a tool of Western espionage,” said cleric-turned-lawmaker Mahmoud Nabavian on Friday, alleging that inspectors had smuggled surveillance equipment into nuclear facilities. “They are spies disguised as inspectors, and Mr. Grossi is fully complicit.”
Last month, Britain, France, and Germany released a joint statement expressing “full support for the independence and impartiality of the IAEA” and warning Tehran against politicizing the agency’s work.
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