US president Donald Trump expressed surprise at seeing Iranians crying during the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying he had thought people ‘hated’ him, NDTV reported.

‘Maybe it’s fake tears,’ Trump said.

Earlier, Trump claimed the United States had given Iran ‘a week off’ to hold the funeral.

‘We beat Venezuela in one day, and we knocked the hell out of Iran. They’re dying to settle. They want to settle so badly. We gave them a week off for a funeral because we’re nice,’ he said.

Trump issued a fresh threat to Iran, claiming that he could eliminate the remaining leadership in the country with just ‘one shot’ during the funeral ceremonies of Khamenei.

He, however, said that he would not do so since there would be ‘no one left’ to negotiate with.

‘They are all there. One shot and we can take them all out, but we are not going to do that because then we would have nobody to negotiate with…They are begging to make a deal,’ Trump told Axios.

He also asserted that both sides have decided to take a week off from the talks until the events around Khamenei’s funeral end. In the meantime, Trump said, neither side will attack the other.

Ali Khamenei, who ruled Iran for 36 years, was killed on February 28 — the day the US and Israel began striking Iran, triggering a war in the Middle East.

Speculations regarding the timeline of the final ceremonies had been building since March. While the Islamic jurisprudence typically dictates that a dead person be buried as soon as possible, ideally within 24 hours, this was an exception due to a state of war.

Iran chose July 4, the 250th anniversary of the creation of the US, to begin Khamenei’s funeral. The funeral rituals will include events in Qom — a holy city south of Tehran, on July 7, and other religious observances. It will conclude on July 9 with Khamenei’s burial in his hometown, the northeastern holy city of Mashhad.

Millions of Iranians have been gathering on the streets, making the funeral one of the closely tracked global events.

On Saturday, Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi were seen crying during the farewell ceremony for the former Iranian Supreme Leader.