Performer calls for Trump’s death at funeral for Iran’s late supreme leader

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A performer at the funeral for Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for the death of U.S. President Donald Trump before a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people Sunday in the capital, Tehran.

Mohammad Rasouli, a poet, drew calls of “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Speaking to the crowd, Rasouli asked, referring to Trump: “Why is the most bastard man in the world still alive?”

That drew cheers.

A far-larger crowd for the funeral than the day before attended the ceremony Sunday. Mourners dressed in black walked to the site, carrying banners and flags honoring Khamenei and also calling for Trump’s killing as he gave a speech in Washington for the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.

The funeral for Khamenei, who ruled Iran for decades before he was killed at age 86 in a Feb. 28 airstrike in the opening moments of the Iran war, could provide a boost for the country’s theocracy and its new supreme leader, his son Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.

That is important as Iran tries to leverage its hold on the Strait of Hormuz in negotiations with the U.S. over a permanent end to the war and as concern lingers that Israel could attack again.

The funeral was delayed as the war raged, and talks are on hold until it is over.

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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.