New Delhi, July 11 -- "hey Trump we will kill you." Beside it, mourners carried a painted caricature offering a bounty for the assassination of the American president. Within hours, Trump had posted on Truth Social that 1,000 American missiles were locked on Tehran.

The two images came from the same moment but addressed entirely different audiences. In Mashhad, an estimated three million mourners converged on the Razavi Shrine complex carrying red flags (the color of vengeance in Shia tradition) for the burial of Iran's supreme leader of 36 years. In Washington, the president of the United States announced his military stood ready to completely decimate Iran.

Khamenei's body was interred inside the shrine grounds Saturday afternoon foll...