Daily Times

Iran has issued an arrest warrant and asked Interpol for help in detaining US President Donald Trump and dozens of others it believes carried out the drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad.

Tehran prosecutor Ali Alqasimehr said on Monday that Trump, along with more than 30 others Iran accuses of involvement in the January 3 attack that killed General Qassem Soleimani, face “murder and terrorism charges”.

The news follows persistent analysis that the regime in Iran believes it has not responded forcefully enough to Trump’s dramatic decision to order the extrajudicial killing of the former commander of the zealous Quds Force and one of the most influential leaders in Iran.

Senior U.S. military leaders also assess that Iranian leaders are “struggling” to contain the fallout from the devastating effect of the spread of the coronavirus there.

Trump’s Jan. 3 decision to order a drone strike against Soleimani as his ground convoy left Baghdad International Airport sparked an international crisis with fears worldwide that the provocative action would lead to military confrontation between the U.S. and Iran.

Tehran responded Jan. 7 with a rocket strike against two U.S. bases in Iraq that injured dozens of U.S. forces there – an attack senior U.S. military officials say was designed to kill Americans.

Interpol, based in Lyon, France, said in a statement its constitution forbade it to undertake “any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character”.

“Therefore, if or when any such requests were to be sent to the General Secretariat … Interpol would not consider requests of this nature.”

The US’s Iran envoy Brian Hook described the move as a “propaganda stunt”.