Iran vows revenge for Soleimani killing if Trump not put on trial

Iran vows revenge for Soleimani killing if Trump not put on trial



IRANIAN President Ebrahim Raisi, speaking on the second anniversary of the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani by the United States, said that former US President Donald Trump must face trial for the killing or Tehran would take revenge.

Iran and groups allied with it in Iraq and other countries have been holding events to honour Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, the overseas arm of the elite Revolutionary Guards. He was killed in Iraq in a drone strike on Jan 3, 2020, ordered by then President Trump.

“If Trump and (former secretary of state Mike) Pompeo are not tried in a fair court for the criminal act of assassinating General Soleimani, Muslims will take our martyr’s revenge,” Raisi said in a speech on Monday.

“The aggressor, murderer and main culprit – the then president of the United States – must be tried and judged under the (Islamic) law of retribution, and God’s ruling must be carried out against him,” Raisi added.

Under Iran’s Islamic laws, a convicted murderer can be executed unless the family of the victim agree to take “blood money” through a reconciliation.

Iranian judicial officials have communicated with authorities in nine countries after identifying 127 suspects in the case, including 74 US nationals, Prosecutor-General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri told state television.

“The criminal former president (Trump) is at the top of the list,” he said.

On Sunday, Iran urged the United Nations Security Council in a letter to hold the US and Israel, which Tehran says was also involved in the killing, to account, Iranian media said.

Days after the assassination, the US told the United Nations that the killing was self-defence. The then US Attorney General William Barr said Trump clearly had the authority to kill Soleimani and the general was a “legitimate military target”.

Hundreds of supporters of Iran-backed militia groups gathered on Sunday at Baghdad international airport to mark the anniversary of Soleimani’s death and to chant anti-American slogans.

Two armed drones were shot down on Monday as they approached an Iraqi military base hosting US forces near Baghdad’s international airport, Iraqi security sources said.

Late on Sunday, Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement seized a United Arab Emirates-flagged cargo vessel which it said was engaged in “hostile acts” but which the Saudis said was carrying hospital equipment.

In Israel on Monday, the Jerusalem Post newspaper said its website had been hacked in what it called an apparent threat to the country, with an illustration that appeared to recall Soleimani. – Jan 4, 2022

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kt comments:

Don't play play vis-a-vis Iranian threats. They had done it before.

Remember what happened on 03 July 1988. Wikipedia reminds us:

Iran Air Flight 655 was a scheduled passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai via Bandar Abbas that was shot down on 3 July 1988 by an SM-2MR surface-to-air missile fired from USS Vincennes, a guided-missile cruiser of the United States Navy. 

The aircraft, an Airbus A300, was destroyed and all 290 people on board were killed. The jet was hit while flying over Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, along the flight's usual route, shortly after departing Bandar Abbas International Airport, the flight's stopover location. 

The incident occurred during the Iran–Iraq War, which had been continuing for nearly eight years. Vincennes had entered Iranian territory after one of its helicopters drew warning fire from Iranian speedboats operating within Iranian territorial limits.

The reason for the downing has been disputed between the governments of the two countries. According to the U.S., the Vincennes crew had incorrectly identified the Airbus as an attacking F-14 Tomcat, a U.S.-made jet fighter that had been part of the Iranian Air Force inventory since the 1970s. While the F-14s had been supplied to Iran in an air-to-air configuration, the Vincennes crew had been briefed that the Iranian F-14s were equipped with air-to-ground ordnance.

The US military asserts that the Vincennes had made ten attempts to contact the aircraft both on military and on civilian frequencies, but had received no response.

According to Iran, the cruiser negligently shot down the aircraft, which was transmitting IFF squawks in Mode III, a signal that identified it as a civilian aircraft, and not Mode II as used by Iranian military aircraft.

The event generated a great deal of criticism of the United States. Some analysts blamed the captain of Vincennes, William C. Rogers III, for overly aggressive behavior in a tense and dangerous environment.

In the days immediately following the incident, President Ronald Reagan issued a written diplomatic note to the Iranian government, expressing deep regret. However, the U.S. continued to insist that Vincennes was acting in "self-defense".

Well then, what did the Iranians do?

Let us again allow Wikipedia to start off with what Iran was suspected of doing:

Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. The transatlantic leg of the route was operated by Clipper Maid of the Seas, a Boeing 747-121 registered N739PA. 

Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988, while the aircraft was in flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, it was destroyed by a bomb that had been planted on board, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew in what became known as the Lockerbie bombing. Large sections of the aircraft crashed in a residential street in Lockerbie, killing 11 residents. With a total of 270 fatalities, it is the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the United Kingdom.

Of course Gaddafi was blamed for the terrorist attack, which years later he owned up though many suggested he did so only because Libya was shunned by the world. He must have decided to accept the blame, paid the compensation (chicken feed to rich Libya) and allowed Libya to re-enter the world.

But here's what Wikipedia said as an "alternative analysis":

Alternative theories

Main article: Pan Am Flight 103 conspiracy theories

Based on a 1995 investigation by journalists Paul Foot and John Ashton, alternative explanations of the plot to commit the Lockerbie bombing were listed by The Guardian's Patrick Barkham in 1999.

Following the Lockerbie verdict in 2001 and the appeal in 2002, attempts have been made to re-open the case amid allegations that Libya was framed. 

One theory suggests the bomb on the plane was detonated by radio. Another theory suggests the CIA prevented the suitcase containing the bomb from being searched. Iran's involvement is alleged, either in association with a Palestine militant group, or in loading the bomb while the plane was at Heathrow.\

The US Defense Intelligence Agency alleges that Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur (Ayatollah Mohtashemi), a member of the Iranian government, paid US$10 million for the bombing:

Ayatollah Mohtashemi: (...) and was the one who paid the same amount to bomb Pan Am Flight 103 in retaliation for the 310.

Yes, the Iranians were eventually suspected of the bomb on board the PANAM crash at Lockerbie, in retaliation for the 310, to wit, the USN shooting of Iran Air Flight 655.

Just remember, those Iranians are not Arabs but blardy Persians - they are extraordinary ferocious and revengeful.