Iran unveiled a massive billboard and banners pledging to kill US President Donald Trump across Tehran on Tuesday, bringing to a new level the official rhetoric displayed in the capital.
“We will kill Trump,” read the billboard towering over the busy Enghelab Square in Tehran, which depicted the US president behind bars with his head bowed.
Another billboard nearby showed Trump along with US Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with bloodied faces and ragged suits against the background of worn-out Israeli and US flags.
Dozens of people gathered in the square waving red flags and carrying banners reading: “There will be blood” while calling for revenge for slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli attacks on February 28, triggering the Middle East war.
New designs of billboards and displays mocking and vowing revenge against Trump and boasting of victory over the United States in the war have frequently been set up around Tehran.
In recent days, renewed diplomatic efforts have been underway to bring Tehran and Washington to negotiate to prevent a resumption in fighting which has spread across the region and driven prices up globally.
Trump, who on Tuesday faces crucial US midterm elections amid voter discontent driven in part by the Iran war, has said that a deal “could happen”.
In the busy Tajrish Square in northern Tehran, an open-air exhibition featured paintings of Trump, including one showing him with his face lying bloodied on the ground as a foot presses down on his head.
Another depicted a bomb obscuring his face.
Nearby, a life-sized replica of a jail cell has remained on display, with an actor impersonating Trump spending the day inside. An adjacent screen showed images of the damage caused by US strikes on Iran.
Tehran accuses Trump of deliberately targeting civilian sites during the war, including a school and a wedding ceremony, killing dozens of people including women and children.
State-sponsored billboards and murals have been a fixture of Iran’s public spaces since the 1979 Islamic revolution, used to honour allies, celebrate military figures and send political messages to adversaries, particularly the United States and Israel.
AFP