Iran has issued a warrant for the arrest of US President Donald Trump for the murder of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) in Tehran announced this on Monday.
Chief prosecutor Ali Alqasi-Mehr said Iran, in addition to Trump, wants to prosecute 35 alleged people involved in the death of Soleimani, including government officials from the US and other countries. He did not provide details about the identities of the other suspects.
Alqasi-Mehr said the Iranian Public Prosecution Service plans to prosecute Trump even if he loses the presidential election in November and makes way for his successor early next year.
The Iranian authorities say they have asked Interpol to include the 37 suspects, including the US President, on the international investigation list.
Interpol cannot confirm that it has received the request, but inform NU.nl that it would be rejected because the organization is not allowed to deal with political or military matters.
The White House has not yet responded.
Although Trump need not fear arrest, the OM move in Tehran shows that tensions between Iran and the US are not yet out of the blue.
They started when the US announced in 2018 that it would step out of the 2015 nuclear agreement and tightened the sanctions regime against Iran.
Qassem Soleimani, leader of the Quds Brigade of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and widely regarded as the mastermind of Iran’s foreign policy, was killed on January 3 this year in a US drone attack in Baghdad. Iran struck back with a missile strike on U.S. troops in Iraq, killing no people, but destroyed a lot of material.
Tehran also said in the aftermath of Soleimani’s death that he no longer feels bound by the nuclear deal, to the dismay of the three European countries, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, who also signed it.
About the author: Wesley C Waldo
Wesley C Waldo, a promising writer who is preparing to publish his first novel in 2023. Travels a lot and collects the clues for a new book. He writes on social topics, sometimes describes an event or two.
