Iran Issues Trump With Second Arrest Warrant Over Drone Strike That Killed Commander

Iran has issued a second arrest warrant for President Donald Trump over the drone strike that killed General Qassem Soleimani back in January 2020.

The Iranian government has reportedly asked Interpol for assistance in detaining Trump, as well as dozens of other US officials connected with the drone strike.

Trump, as well as 47 other US officials, were subjected to an Interpol ‘red notice’ request for their part in the Baghdad drone strike just last year. Now, a second warrant has been issued for their arrest.

This latest announcement was made by Iranian judiciary spokesperson Gholamhossein Esmaili at a press conference in Iran on Tuesday, January 5.

As per Al Jazeera, Esmaili gave the following comments to reporters:

The Islamic Republic of Iran is very seriously following up on pursuing and punishing those who ordered and executed this crime.

The US drone strike of January 3, 2020 was ordered by President Trump and sparked outrage across the country.

General Soleimani had been Iran’s top general and the leader of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He was killed by a missile fired from a USAF MQ-9 Reaper aircraft alongside Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis as their motorcade pulled out of Baghdad airport.

The US had claimed Soleimani had been ‘actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq’, which it argued justified ‘decisive defensive action’. However, Iran strongly disagreed with this argument, and claimed that the US had broken international law.

Agnes Callamard, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, also deemed that Soleimani’s assassination had broken international law.

As reported by Forbes, Interpol has already rejected a previous request issued by Iran back in June, pushing for Trump and other military officials to be arrested for ‘murder and terrorism charges’.

Interpol explained at the time that its constitution prevented it from conducting ‘any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character’. It’s believed to be unlikely that this second, similar request will be accepted.

Tensions have increased significantly in the region during the early days of 2021. The US made a U-turn on its original decision to recall an aircraft carrier from the Persian Gulf, stating that threats had been made against the president.

Iran has also resumed enriching uranium to 20% purity, violating a nuclear proliferation pact made back in 2015. Enriched uranium can be used to create nuclear bombs, with weapons-grade uranium having 90% purity.

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