Tehran, Jan 10 (IANS) Speaker of Iran’s Parliament said that former US President Donald Trump and all his “accomplices” must be held legally accountable for the assassination of late military commander Qasem Soleimani in 2020.
The “criminal act” of assassinating Soleimani was a “flagrant and absolute instance of state terrorism”, Xinhua news agency quoted Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf as saying at the 13th session of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly in Turkey on Monday.
A US drone strike on a convoy killed Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, along with an Iraqi militia commander near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.
In a public address here on January 3 to mark Soleimani’s second death anniversary, President Ebrahim Raisi said that Trump and former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo must be “prosecuted for their criminal activity” through a fair mechanism, warning Iran’s revenge in case those involved in and behind the “criminal act” are not punished.
Over the weekend, Iran’s Foreign Ministry announced that it had blacklisted 51 more US individuals for their “roles” Soleimani’s assassination.
Some of the names in the latest list include Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and former National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien,.
Trump and Pompeo were previously listed.
Last week, Chairman of the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council Faiq Zidane said the council had issued an arrest warrant for Trump over the assassination of Soleimani and Muhandis.
–IANS
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