On the second anniversary of the drone-strike death of General Qassem Soleimani on Monday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called for former US President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to face justice, warning that if those responsible for the attack go unpunished, “revenge will come.”
“[General Soleimani] deeply believed that the United States cannot do [anything] against us. . . [W]hat should be done in this horrible crime that was very hard and expensive for the whole Islamic Ummah? The aggressor and murderer and the main criminal, who was the then President of the United States, must be brought to justice [and] retribution must be carried out,” Raisi said in a speech marking the anniversary.
Soleimani, the Iranian major general and commander of the Quds Force (a wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), was killed by a drone strike ordered by Trump on January 3, 2020. The strike incurred widespread criticism with many questioning its validity under international law.
In the aftermath of the strike, among a series of retaliatory moves, Iran withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal—albeit, doing so nearly two years after the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the same—and designated the US military and the Pentagon as terrorist organisations. Iran also endeavored to order the arrest of 36 political and military officials including former President Trump, through Interpol. However, in a statement to CNN, Interpol said it “would not consider requests of this nature.”
On Sunday, Majid Takht Ravanchi, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Iran to the UN, urged UN Security Council President Mona Juul to hold the US and Israel accountable for the assassination of General Soleimani. In his letter he stated, “Given the dire implications of this terrorist act on international peace and security, the Security Council must live up to its Charter-based responsibilities and hold the United States and the Israeli regime to account for planning, supporting and committing that terrorist act.”
