Iranian MP offers $3 million bounty to 'anyone' who takes out Trump

RT
Tue, 21 Jan 2020 20:50 UTC

© REUTERS / West Asia News Agency / Nazanin Tabatabaee

Iranian protesters hold a cardboard cutout depicting U.S. President Donald Trump

A member of Iran's parliament has called for placing a bounty on US President Donald Trump's head in response to a drone strike that killed Tehran's senior military commander, Qassem Soleimani.

The statement was made by Ahmad Hamzeh, a lawmaker from the southern Kerman Province, whose namesake capital is Soleimani's hometown.

"On behalf of the people of Kerman Province, we will pay a 3 million dollar award in cash to whoever kills Trump," Hamzeh said in a speech to fellow lawmakers on Tuesday, as quoted by Iranian news outlets.

© ISNA

Ahmad Hamzeh, parliamentary speaker from Kerman province, has announced a $3million 'cash prize' for 'whoever kills Donald Trump'

Hamzeh also said that Iran would be protected from attacks and threats by the US if it had nuclear weapons, adding that Tehran must consider developing "long-range missiles capable of carrying unconventional warheads."

US disarmament ambassador Robert Wood rebuked Hamzeh's suggestion to place a bounty on Trump. "It's just ridiculous but it gives you a sense of the terrorist underpinnings of that regime and that regime needs to change its behavior," the diplomat told reporters at a disarmament conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

Earlier in January, a video circulated on social media during Soleimani's funeral, in which an unnamed eulogist reportedly proposed to put an $80 million bounty on Trump's head.

Major General Soleimani, who led the elite Quds force - a unit within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps tasked with operations abroad - was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq on January 3. Officials in Washington accused Soleimani of plotting terrorist attacks and claimed that his death had saved the lives of American personnel and civilians.

Iran responded to Soleimani's death by firing a volley of ballistic missiles at two Iraqi bases housing US troops. Tehran, however, warned Iraq of the incoming attack, which allowed the US to move its troops to safety. The missiles caused some damage to the bases but there were no American casualties. Washington chose not to respond militarily to the barrage, and promised new sanctions instead.

Comment: The US, without irony, condemned the statement. It seemingly can't connect its murder of an important government figure with an expression of outrage about it. Who is the real terrorist here?

"It's just ridiculous, but it gives you a sense of the terrorist underpinnings of that regime, and that regime needs to change its behavior," US Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament Robert Wood told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday, as quoted by Reuters.

The diplomat was commenting on a remark by Iranian lawmaker Ahmad Hamzeh, who promised to pay US$3,000,000 to anyone who kills Trump. Hamzeh said it would be revenge for the death of top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike earlier this month, and called for Tehran to develop nuclear weapons.

After Soleimani was killed, Iran announced it was rolling back its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal - a step that pushed the European parties to the treaty, such as France, Germany and the UK, to launch an investigation into Tehran's alleged non-compliance. In response, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned that the country will ditch the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if EU states file a complaint with the UN Security Council over its nuclear commitments.

Zarif explained that Iran has been scaling down its commitments under the JCPOA nuclear treatment in accordance with the mechanisms laid out in the agreement, and had only begun to do so after the US abandoned the deal in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions on Iran.

The Iranian FM's words send a "very, very negative message," the US disarmament ambassador told reporters.