Acting Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani told CNN on Wednesday that his rogue state would continue to “judicially and legally” attempt to bring American former President Donald Trump “to justice” for his decision to conduct an airstrike against senior Iranian terrorist Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
Asked specifically if the Iranian government is seeking to assassination Trump, Bagheri refused to plainly say no, instead repeating that it is Iran’s “right” to seek “justice” against Trump. Bagheri did appear to distance his country from the failed assassination attempt against the former president on Saturday, in which a man identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Brooks opened fire on Trump as he spoke at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Bagheri issued his comments to journalist Fareed Zakaria a day after CNN reported, citing anonymous sources, that the Secret Service had reason to believe that the Iranian government was plotting to kill Trump.
“As you know, the Islamic Republic of Iran, immediately following the assassination of General Soleimani, tried to judicially and legally follow [up on] the assassination,” Bagheri asserted. “We have tried to make use of the international legal procedures in order to prosecute the perpetrators and advisers who helped this assassination.”
“Accordingly, the Islamic Republic of Iran will make use of all legal potential inside the country or at the international level in order to bring the perpetrators to justice,” Bagheri said, referring to President Trump and others facing criminal charges in Iran, such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Zakaria asked Bagheri to clarify whether Iran is seeking to kill Trump or not.
“As I put it very blatantly and openly … we will resort to legal and judicial procedures, frameworks, at the domestic level, at the international level, in order to bring the perpetrators and military advisers of General Soleimani’s assassination to justice,” Bagheri repeated, without answering yes or no to Zakaria’s question.
“This is our right and, of course, we will continue, and the Americans openly said that they assassinated [a] senior Iranian military commander,” he concluded, “so it is our natural right in order to follow this issue and those who are accused in these cases, they should be brought to justice in a just court.”
Gen. Soleimani was the head of the Quds Force, the foreign terrorism unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The IRGC is itself a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, and Soleimani was in charge of its relations with other foreign terrorist organizations and rogue governments such as those of Cuba and Venezuela. Soleimani was so powerful that leaked comments indicated his relations with foreign powers irritated the sidelined Iranian Foreign Ministry.
Trump ordered an airstrike in January 2020 against Soleimani, which killed him and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the head of the Iran-backed Iraqi terrorist militia Kata’ib Hezbollah. Trump openly celebrated the removal of Soleimani, responsible for hundreds of American deaths, from the battlefield.
“This should have been done for the last 15-20 years,” Trump said in 2020. “Him in particular [Soleimani]. He was their real military leader. He’s a terrorist. He was designated as a terrorist by [President Barack] Obama, and then Obama did nothing about it.”
Iran responded by prosecuting Trump, Pompeo, and senior members of the Pentagon. At a funeral event for Soleimani in 2020, an unnamed speaker urged Iranians to crowdsource a bounty for Trump’s head.
“We would give this $80 million, on our own behalf, as a gift to anyone who brings the head of the person who ordered the murder of the grand figure of our revolution,” the speaker declared. “Anyone who brings us the head of this yellow-haired lunatic, we would give him $80 million on behalf of the great Iranian nation.”
A court in Tehran ordered Trump and several others to pay the Iranian government nearly $50 billion for Soleimani’s death. The Iranian government has issued multiple arrest warrants for Trump.
Iran’s outrage over Soleimani began part of the greater developments surrounding Saturday’s assassination attempt after CNN reported this week that the Secret Service was aware of a potential threat to Trump’s life emanating from Tehran. According to the left-wing outlet, the Secret Service did not have information linking Crooks to the Iranian plot but “surged resources and assets for the protection of former President Trump” before the Pennsylvania rally on Saturday.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle later affirmed that her agency “increased … what [they] felt was appropriate for the former President and for that particular event on that day.”
WATCH — Secret Service Director: We Increased ‘What We Felt Was Appropriate’ After Iran Threat on Trump
“We have been increasing the assets and the resources and the staffing that we have been providing to the former President since he was a presidential candidate and then the presumptive nominee. That’s what I can tell you,” she said in an interview this week.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry flatly denied any role in the Pennsylvania assassination attempt.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to pursue legal action against Trump for his direct role in the crime of assassinating Martyr General Qassem Soleimani,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani told reporters. “However, it strongly rejects any involvement in the recent armed attack on Trump or claims about Iran’s intention for such an action, considering such allegations to have malicious political motives and objectives.”
The Foreign Ministry reiterated, however, that “from the Islamic Republic’s standpoint, Trump is a criminal.”
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