The editor of Iran's most hardline state-aligned newspaper has published a demand that the United States extradite President Donald Trump to Tehran to stand trial before Iranian courts, as the first condition of any future diplomatic negotiations between the two countries.
Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of Kayhan, the newspaper widely understood to speak directly for the office of the Supreme Leader and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, spelled out the demand in a column reported by Iran International. He called Trump's extradition not a negotiating position but a prerequisite, framing it as the first and necessary step toward implementing the late Khamenei's demands regarding any diplomatic engagement with the West.
Shariatmadari did not stop there. He called on Iran's negotiating team to impose a complete boycott on the White House, refusing to receive or meet Trump or any representative of his administration in future talks. In their place, he proposed that any American delegation be composed exclusively of members of the US Congress, effectively demanding that Tehran negotiate with the legislative branch while bypassing the executive entirely.
The editorial closed on an openly threatening note. Shariatmadari declared that the effort to avenge Supreme Leader Khamenei must not be confined to the Middle East, stating explicitly that this mission must be carried out and executed on American soil itself.
Kayhan is not a fringe publication. It is the ideological flagship of Iran's most extreme institutional wing, a paper whose editor is a direct appointee of the Supreme Leader's office and whose columns consistently reflect the positions of the hardline establishment, including the IRGC. When Kayhan speaks, it speaks with political weight that extends well beyond its editorial page.
The demands land as the US-Iran MOU framework remains fragile and contested, with hardline factions inside Iran openly calling for the execution of the Iranian negotiators who signed it, and now directing their rage at the American president himself.
