Iran issues arrest warrant for Donald Trump over Qassem Suleimani killing
Iran has issued an arrest warrant for Donald Trump and 35 others over the killing of top general Qassem Suleimani and has asked Interpol for help, a Tehran prosecutor, Ali Alqasimehr, has said.
The US killed Suleimani with a drone strike in Iraq on 3 January after it accused him of masterminding attacks by Iranian-aligned militias on American forces across the Middle East.
The move caused unease in Europe but the US claims that Suleimani’s death has weakened Iran’s grip on Iraq.
The US special envoy on Iran, Brian Hook, dismissed the warrant as a propaganda stunt that “nobody takes seriously”.
Interpol said it would not comply with the Iranian request, which was likely to be seen in the context of the growing tensions between Tehran and Washington over the future of the UN embargo on conventional arms sales to
Iran. The embargo is due to expire in September unless the security council votes against.
A US draft resolution retaining the arms embargo is due to be debated at the UN security council on Tuesday, and the US is trying to put pressure on the EU not to allow the embargo to lapse.
The Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, is due to address the virtual meeting where he will point out the expiry of the embargo in September is set out in the nuclear deal agreed between the great powers in 2015.
Although the killing of Suleimani brought the US and Iran to the brink of armed conflict after Iran retaliated by firing missiles at US targets in Iraq several days later, the US is unrepentant about the attack, believing it has disrupted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps force.
Hook pointed to political developments in Iraq, including the appointment Mustafa al-Kadhimi as prime minister, saying: “We don’t have Suleimani’s usual influence at play there and we see the Iraqi people really standing up and protesting against the Iranian interference.”
He added that developments in Iraq were part of a wider rejection of the “Iranian model” in the region, with “massive protests against the Iranian model of sectarian violence and corruption and the lack of accountability in Lebanon, Iraq and in Iran”.
Hook was in the Gulf where the Arab coalition revealed it had seized an Iranian missile shipment off the Yemeni coast that was destined for Houthi rebels. Hook warned “Iran smuggles weapons, but once this embargo expires, they will be able to do this stuff in broad daylight”.
He added that lifting the conventional arms embargo would embolden Iran’s foreign militarism. “This is not an outcome the UN security council can accept. The council’s mandate is clear: to maintain international peace and security,” he said.
Russia and China have said they will oppose the embargo being retained, which makes it more difficult for the US to prevent the embargo being lifted.
While red notices are non-binding, they are common practice when wanted fugitives or people suspected of crimes flee across borders.