Will Iran kill these foreign leaders?

Crosshairs, orange jumpsuits, and sniper dots: no, this is not a promotional still for John Wick 7, but actually the latest kill list just dropped in Iran. So shall we take a look?

First, who's on it?

The 13 faces include President Trump and Israel's Netanyahu (crosshairs on foreheads), followed by America's Rubio (State), Hegseth (Pentagon), Huckabee (ambassador to Israel), and Brad Cooper — no the mullahs are not upset with Bradley's portrayal of Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy — it’s the CENTCOM boss running the war.

Then there's Israel's Katz (defence), Sa'ar (foreign minister), and Zamir (IDF chief of staff), plus the UK's Starmer, France's Macron, Germany's Merz, and Italy's Meloni (yay for female inclusion in Iran).

Second, who wrote it?

The city of Tehran's flagship 'Hamshahri' (compatriot) newspaper took a break from reporting house prices and traffic jams to instead devote prime real estate to this hit list.

Municipality-owned and reliably pro-regime, Hamshahri acts as it a quasi-official mouthpiece — it echoes the regime line without quite reaching the foam-at-the-mouth level of hardline IRGC outlets like Kayhan. That makes it the perfect vehicle for plausible deniability: “Oh *that* kill list? Just a newspaper”.

Third, what's it mean?

This isn’t Hamshahri’s first "revenge list" — after Trump 1.0's assassination of General Soleimani, the paper added names like Mattis, Pompeo, Pence, Haley, and Bolton to its list, all nestled among soccer scores, weather updates, and fun vacation ideas for the kids.

But the exact authority behind these lists is murky. Sure, grand ayatollahs (like Shirazi and Hamedani) issued fatwas back in March, declaring "it is the duty of all Muslims to avenge the blood of their martyred leader", widely seen as covering both Trump and Bibi for their hit on Khamenei Sr.

But the other 11? It's unclear if they're also under some formal fatwa, an IRGC / Quds operational list, or if it's just bluster from another regime rag (in amongst updates on metro delays, health tips, and theatre showtimes).

So fourth, why drop the kill-list now?

Hamshahri published its glossy kill-list spread just hours after Khamenei Jr issued his first major statement since his father’s funeral, featuring spicy lines like “vengeance is the will of the nation and must inevitably be carried out.”

Leaving aside questions around whether Junior is even still alive, that timing looks like classic regime choreography: broad religious rhetoric up top, backed by the new supreme leader, then quickly amplified via meme-fresh visuals reaching everyday Tehranis.

The point here? Whether operational targeting or not, when your friendly municipal paper suddenly pivots from "best deals on cucumber" to "here's who we'd love to see dead", it's at least partly a propaganda flex. And the targets are clear:

• Rally the hardliners

• Intimidate the sceptics

• Fire up those proxies abroad, and

• Play tough as US talks continue.

Because nothing says “we’re open to talks” like sniper dots on half the West’s leaders.

Sound even smarter:

• Clearly enjoying the buzz, the Hamshahri paper also did a glossy follow-up special highlighting all the Western headlines covering this latest kill-list.

• In response, President Trump says he’s left orders to “bomb them at levels they’ve never seen” if he’s assassinated — that’s on-brand, though lends the threat more oxygen.

• Broadening the kill-list to include Starmer, Macron, Merz, and Meloni (who weren’t even in the loop about the initial US-Israel strikes) looks like more horizontal escalation by the regime, to impose costs on any US alignment.