In his September 2023 address to the United Nations General Assembly, the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned that “the blood of the oppressed will not be forgotten, and the ropes of the guilty will bring them to justice.”
Three years later, media attention is focused on President Donald Trump’s use of a catering truck to secretly switch planes before leaving last month’s NATO summit in Turkey. Trump did so on U.S. Secret Service advice amid an Iranian assassination threat.
Raisi’s rhetoric hints at why the threat to Trump isn’t going away. Indeed, as long as the Islamic Republic of Iran exists, it will aggressively seek Trump’s premature demise. It doesn’t matter whether it’s now, a year from now, or ten years from now, Iran desperately wants Trump dead. The rationale for this murderous fixation finds its root at a unique intersection of vengeance and theologically vested history.
Let’s start with the history. The Iranian regime adopts a Khomeinist interpretation of Twelver Shia theology. This ideology places extreme emphasis on valiant resistance against more powerful, unjust, and oppressive foes. It means lionizing those who give their lives as martyrs to this cause. Most notably, Husayn ibn Ali’s death against an Umayyad force at the 7th-century Battle of Karbala.
