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"Revenge Is Certain":

Iranian Paper's New Hit List Includes Meloni, Merz, Macron, Starmer — But Not Vance

 Iran's Tehran-owned Hamshahri newspaper published an updated image placing Trump, Netanyahu, and other Western leaders on a "revenge" list.

Iranian Paper's New Hit List Includes Meloni, Merz, Macron, Starmer — But Not Vance

Hamshahri, the Tehran municipality-owned newspaper, published an updated image on its website Saturday depicting a row of world leaders in orange prisoner jumpsuits under the headline "Revenge is inevitable," with Trump and Netanyahu shown first, both marked with a crosshair over their heads. The image was tied to a new message from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei asserting that avenging his father's killing is "the will of the nation."

Beyond Trump and Netanyahu, the image included Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper. It also featured US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, along with two additional Israeli officials, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar. The list closed with three European leaders: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also appeared in the image, according to Italian media reports. The subtitle accompanying the graphic read, "These criminals will carry the wish for a peaceful death to their graves."

Notably absent from the list was US Vice President JD Vance, despite his prominent role leading recent rounds of US-Iran diplomacy, including talks in Switzerland aimed at establishing a communication channel between the US military and Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The image accompanied a written statement from Mojtaba Khamenei, released Saturday and dated to July 9, the day his father was buried in Mashhad. "We pledge to avenge your pure blood and the blood of all the martyrs of these two wars against the criminal and disgraced killers," the message read. "This revenge is the demand of our nation, and it must certainly take place." Khamenei added that retribution did not depend on his own presence or that of other Iranian officials, saying "individuals among the freedom-seekers across the world will each carry out part of this divine mission."

The updated image follows an earlier Hamshahri front page published around two weeks ago that showed only Trump in a rifle scope's crosshairs beneath the same "revenge" framing, published as US envoys traveled to Doha for indirect contacts with Iranian officials. Saturday's version significantly widens the circle of targets named, incorporating both Israeli military leadership and senior European officials for the first time.

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