July 3, 2026
Lauge Risom Koch
Iran has renewed its pledge to retaliate following the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with a senior military commander warning that Tehran intends to “avenge the blood” of those killed, according to The Express.
Lauge Risom Koch
Iran has renewed its pledge to retaliate following the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with a senior military commander warning that Tehran intends to “avenge the blood” of those killed, according to The Express.
The comments mark the
latest escalation in rhetoric between Iran and the United States after reports
that Khamenei was killed in a U.S.-Israeli military operation earlier this
year.
Retaliation pledge
According to The Express, Iranian Army Commander-in-Chief Amir Hatami said the country remained committed to responding to what he described as aggression against Iran.
Speaking on state television, Hatami said: “With a firmer resolve, we declare to the enemies of the Iranian nation that we will avenge the blood of the martyred Imam and the martyrs.”
While he did not mention President Donald Trump by name in the quoted remarks, the publication reported that the statement followed U.S. involvement in the operation that killed Khamenei.
Strike and response
The Express reported that Khamenei was killed on Feb. 28 in an airstrike targeting his compound. The publication said the operation, carried out by Israel with CIA intelligence support, also killed several members of his family.
Iran’s Fars News Agency reported that those killed included Khamenei’s daughter, granddaughter, son-in-law and daughter-in-law.
Following the strike, Trump announced Khamenei’s death on Truth Social, calling him “one of the most evil people in History.”
He added: “This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS.”
Continuing tensions
Trump also said military operations would continue “as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!”
Khamenei was succeeded by his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, who was reportedly injured in the same strikes and has not appeared publicly since assuming the position of Supreme Leader, according to The Express.
Tom Boggioni
An offhand comment from Donald Trump to Vice President JD Vance may not have been meant for public consumption, according to political analyst Heather Digby Parton.
In an unguarded moment this week, Vance disclosed that Trump told envoys tasked with negotiating a peace deal with Iran to "use the [memorandum of understanding] to refill the world's oil economy, refill some stocks and then to see where the hand is."
According to Parton, that was an admission that the administration is stalling negotiations to drive down gas prices before possiblyrestarting the war, but that Vance's blunder is simply business as usual in an administration where "verbal incontinence" cascades from the top down.
Trump's tendency to blurt out whatever pops into his head has become so normalized that his vice president is now doing the same thing — casually revealing strategic calculations about a potential Middle East conflict to the public, she suggested.
According to Parton, during Trump's first term, "... administration officials like John F. Kelly, his second White House chief of staff, and Jim Mattis and Mark Esper, his first two defense secretaries, tried to contain the president’s worst impulses, they were often unsuccessful. Trump seemed congenitally undisciplined, unable to stop himself from articulating every thought that passed through his head, usually to brag, blame or threaten. The result was a presidency that was, in a word, unstable."
Now a year and a half into his second term, that instability has grown because he believes he can do no wrong.
"Trump’s old compulsion to behave erratically and shoot his mouth off is now combined with a megalomania that has him building monuments to himself and musing openly about being included in the pantheon of dictators like Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. Today he’s driven by a belief that he is omnipotent, and nothing he does will have any negative consequences. He has come to believe that whatever he says is the right thing, no matter what," she wrote.
Even worse, she suggested, if Trump faces "blowback," he dismisses it and makes more outrageous claims.
"He is impervious to criticism now because he literally believes he can do no wrong, and there are tens of millions of people who believe that too," she warned.
Retaliation pledge
According to The Express, Iranian Army Commander-in-Chief Amir Hatami said the country remained committed to responding to what he described as aggression against Iran.
Speaking on state television, Hatami said: “With a firmer resolve, we declare to the enemies of the Iranian nation that we will avenge the blood of the martyred Imam and the martyrs.”
While he did not mention President Donald Trump by name in the quoted remarks, the publication reported that the statement followed U.S. involvement in the operation that killed Khamenei.
Strike and response
The Express reported that Khamenei was killed on Feb. 28 in an airstrike targeting his compound. The publication said the operation, carried out by Israel with CIA intelligence support, also killed several members of his family.
Iran’s Fars News Agency reported that those killed included Khamenei’s daughter, granddaughter, son-in-law and daughter-in-law.
Following the strike, Trump announced Khamenei’s death on Truth Social, calling him “one of the most evil people in History.”
He added: “This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS.”
Continuing tensions
Trump also said military operations would continue “as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!”
Khamenei was succeeded by his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, who was reportedly injured in the same strikes and has not appeared publicly since assuming the position of Supreme Leader, according to The Express.
Tom Boggioni
An offhand comment from Donald Trump to Vice President JD Vance may not have been meant for public consumption, according to political analyst Heather Digby Parton.
In an unguarded moment this week, Vance disclosed that Trump told envoys tasked with negotiating a peace deal with Iran to "use the [memorandum of understanding] to refill the world's oil economy, refill some stocks and then to see where the hand is."
According to Parton, that was an admission that the administration is stalling negotiations to drive down gas prices before possiblyrestarting the war, but that Vance's blunder is simply business as usual in an administration where "verbal incontinence" cascades from the top down.
Trump's tendency to blurt out whatever pops into his head has become so normalized that his vice president is now doing the same thing — casually revealing strategic calculations about a potential Middle East conflict to the public, she suggested.
According to Parton, during Trump's first term, "... administration officials like John F. Kelly, his second White House chief of staff, and Jim Mattis and Mark Esper, his first two defense secretaries, tried to contain the president’s worst impulses, they were often unsuccessful. Trump seemed congenitally undisciplined, unable to stop himself from articulating every thought that passed through his head, usually to brag, blame or threaten. The result was a presidency that was, in a word, unstable."
Now a year and a half into his second term, that instability has grown because he believes he can do no wrong.
"Trump’s old compulsion to behave erratically and shoot his mouth off is now combined with a megalomania that has him building monuments to himself and musing openly about being included in the pantheon of dictators like Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. Today he’s driven by a belief that he is omnipotent, and nothing he does will have any negative consequences. He has come to believe that whatever he says is the right thing, no matter what," she wrote.
Even worse, she suggested, if Trump faces "blowback," he dismisses it and makes more outrageous claims.
"He is impervious to criticism now because he literally believes he can do no wrong, and there are tens of millions of people who believe that too," she warned.
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