Iran asks Interpol to arrest Trump, 47 others over Soleimani's killing
It's the second time Tehran requested the international police organisation to issue an arrest warrant for US President Donald Trump over the killing of its top general Qasem Soleimani a year ago.
In this file photo taken on January 7, 2020, Iranian mourners gather during the final stage of funeral processions for slain top general Qasem Soleimani, in his hometown Kerman.
Iran has issued a second arrest warrant for President Donald Trump and 47 other US officials over the killing of its top general Qasem Soleimani last year and requested Interpol to issue a red notice for their arrest.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran is very seriously following up on pursuing and punishing those who ordered and executed this crime," Iranian judiciary spokesperson Gholamhossein Esmaili said on Tuesday.
The red notice request coincides with the anniversary of Soleimani's killing in a US air strike in Baghdad.
Esmaili called Trump "the main culprit" in Soleimani's killing, according to the semiofficial Mehr News Agency.
Interpol however said it does not consider requests for a red notice that are deemed to be motivated by political or military concerns, NPR reported.
Blame game
Tens of thousands of supporters of Iranian-backed Iraqi paramilitary groups chanted anti-American slogans in central Baghdad on Sunday to mark the anniversary of Soleimani's killing and that of an Iraqi militia commander.
The United States and Interpol both dismissed the idea of acting on Iran's first warrant request in June issued on charges of murder and terrorist action.
Days earlier, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Iran will not leave the killers of Soleimani alone, adding that the US president and secretary of state are responsible for his death.
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday accused Trump of aiming to fabricate a "pretext for war," after the president blamed Tehran for a December 20 rocket strike on the US embassy in Baghdad.
READ MORE: Even in death, Iran’s Soleimani still casts a long shadow
US-Iran tensions
The United States killed Soleimani, leader of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, with a drone strike in Iraq on January 3.
Washington accused Soleimani of masterminding attacks by Iranian-aligned militias on US forces in the region.
After the Soleimani killing, Iraq's Parliament initially voted to expel US forces – but despite some withdrawals, about 3,000 American troops remain in the country.
On Sunday, Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Iran-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah, said Soleimani's death had been a "huge blow" but that the departure of US troops from the region remained a "declared goal."
Iran and the United States – bitter foes since the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution and the US embassy hostage crisis in Tehran – have twice come to the brink of war since June 2019, most recently after Soleimani's killing.
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