US President Donald Trump has reportedly been issued with an arrest warrant by Iran for the US drone strike which killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad earlier this year.
Iran has asked Interpol to help it detain Mr Trump and dozens of others it believes carried out the drone strike of General Qassem Soleimani on January 3, according to local news sources.
State-owned news agency Irna reported that Tehran would pursue Mr Trump and 30 others for “murder and terrorism charges” which would continue even after Mr Trump’s presidency had ended.
READ MORE: Anger as Donald Trump tweets video showing ‘white power’ chant
Iran reportedly requested a “red notice” for Mr Trump which is the highest arrest request Interpol can issue.
Mr Trump is not likely to face any danger of arrest, however, as Interpol, which works with countries around the world to tackle international crime, cannot force countries to arrest or extradite suspects.
Interpol’s guidelines on notices forbid it from “undertaking any intervention or activities of a political” nature.
READ MORE: Trump left 'furious' after comeback rally has rows of empty seats
Brian Hook, US special representative for Iran, said: “It’s a propaganda stunt that no one takes seriously and makes the Iranians look foolish.”
General Soleimani was considered to be one of the top officials in Iran, heading the elite Quds Force, the overseas operations arm of the country’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps, which defends the country’s Islamic system.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here