Iran has issued an arrest warrant against the president of United States of America, Donald Trump for killing their military General Soleimani in January. Iran has also asked the Interpol to help them in this arrest of the president.
There was a drone strike in January in Baghdad that killed the top Iranian General. Not just the General 30 others were killed on the strike on January 3rd, 2020.
The Prosecutor of Tehran, Ali Alqasimehr on Monday said that Trump and 30 others along with him are accused by Iran in the involvement of the air strike in Baghdad. The arrest warrant is based on murder and terrorism charges.
Though the 30 others have not been identified yet, the prosecutor Alqasimehr stressed only on Trump’s arrest and continued to say that Iran would continue to pursue his prosecution even after his presidency ends.
When asked Interpol which is based in Lyon, France they clearly stated that Interpol does not consider requests of this nature. The constitution on Interpol forbids it to undertake any intervention or activities of political, military, religious or racial character. Interpol has not yet received any such request or statement from Iran directly and if or when they do receive it, they have no grounds of considering accepting requests like this from any country.
The United States, Iran envoy, Brian Hook also gave a statement regarding this calling it a propaganda stunt by Iran. Brian also said that they hope Interpol does not intervene or issue Red Notices because this situation is based on political nature. The arrest warrant against the president is just a stunt and it does not have anything to do with national security, international peace or promoting stability which is what Interpol takes care of. There was a press conference in Saudi Arabia where Brian Hook said it was a ‘Propaganda stunt.’
Iran had requested a red Notice to be issued by Interpol. Red Notices are issued for fugitives wanted either for prosecution or to serve a sentence. Red Notice is the highest level of notice which is issued by Interpol requesting the urgent arrest by the locals of the individual named. Under a red notice, local authorities make the arrests on behalf of the country that requested it. The notices cannot force countries to arrest or extradite suspects, but can put government leaders on the spot and limit suspects’ travel.
The US killed General Soleimani, in a drone strike on January 3rd 2020. General oversaw the Revolutionary Guard Corps’s expeditionary Quds Force. Not just the General there were many others who got killed in the January attack near Baghdad International Airport.The assassination came after months of incidents raising tensions between the two countries and ultimately saw Iran retaliate with a ballistic missile strike targeting American troops in Iraq.
By Deepika Agarwal
