Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has threatened to exact revenge against Donald Trump on the second anniversary of Qassem Soleimani’s death in an American drone strike.
Raisi said on Monday that Iran would seek retribution unless the former American president, along with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, agreed to a trial in a “fair court” in which they and other American officials would be sentenced for ordering the killing of the Iranian general who was the commander of the Quds Force, AFP reported.
In a speech that was broadcast on Iranian television, the Iranian leader called Trump the “main criminal and killer” for his role in taking out Soleimani, and said Trump must face “qisas,” the Muslim term for retribution or an "eye for an eye.”
"It would be ok if the trial of Mr Trump, Pompeo and other criminals was held in a fair court where their horrible crimes were addressed and they faced justice for their actions," Raisi said. “Otherwise, I will tell all US leaders that without a doubt the hand of revenge will emerge from the sleeve of the Muslim nation."
Raisi’s address was aimed at thousands of Iranian who had assembled in Grand Mosalla, Tehran’s biggest mosque, part of a week of events marking Soleimani’s death.
As those in attendance waved Iranian flags and photos of the late general, Raisi praised him as an icon of “bravery and rationality.”
On Monday, Iran set up a court, with government officials asking the public to lodge any wrongs they believe foreign powers are guilty of in carrying out Soleimani’s killing.
Earlier, Homayoun Sameyah Najafabadi, a representative of the Iranian Jewish community in Iran’s parliament, released a statement to Iranian reporters condemning the killing of Soleimani, writing that the Jewish community in Iran lamented Soleimani’s killing, and offered its condolences to Soleimani’s family.