Iranian regime demands Trump and Pompeo face trial for 2020 assassination of General Soleimani

Iran’s hardline president Ebrahim Raisi has called for former President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to face trial for the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Jan. 2020.

In a speech on Monday, Raisi declared that both Trump and Pompeo should be “tried in a fair court” for the assassination of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard general, calling the former U.S. president an “aggressor,” “murderer” and the “main culprit,” The Hill reported.

“If Trump and Pompeo are not tried in a fair court for the criminal act of assassinating General Soleimani, Muslims will take our martyr's revenge,” Raisi stated.

“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,” he added.

Soleimani was killed near the Baghdad airport on Jan. 3, 2020, in a drone strike reportedly ordered by Trump.

"We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war," Trump stated following the strike.

At the time, Defense officials said the mission was carried out because Soleimani was “actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region” and was “responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more.”

Pompeo also defended the airstrike, saying “we’re definitely safer today.” 

But two years after the attack, Iran is seeking retribution for the assassination.

The regime has so far identified 127 suspects connected to the case, which includes 74 U.S. nationals, Reuters reported, citing Prosecutor-General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri’s remarks to Iranian state television.

Montazeri, however, said “The criminal former president is at the top of the list.”

This is particularly troublesome as, according to Iran’s Sharia law, convicted murderers can be executed, unless the family of the victim opts to receive “blood money” as a settlement.

Iran penned a letter to the United Nations Security Council on Sunday, pressing the group to hold the U.S. and Israel accountable for the death of Soleimani.

Israel has acknowledged providing intelligence to the U.S. to help facilitate the assassination.