Iran, Iraq Continue Investigation into US Assassination of General Soleimani

Deputy Head of Iran’s Judiciary for international affairs and secretary general of the country’s High Council for Human Rights Kazzem Qaribabadi said on Sunday that the third round of negotiations between the joint committee of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Iraq regarding the investigation of the terrorist attack against General Soleimani will be held in Baghdad in the coming days.

He added that the third round of negotiations will begin on Tuesday (February 8, 2022) and will continue for two days in Baghdad, Iraq.

Iran announced in January that 127 suspects are on the list of the country’s Judiciary to be prosecuted for involvement and cooperation in assassination of General Soleimani.

Iranian Judiciary Spokesman Zabihollah Khodayian said the country has sent 11 letters of request to 9 countries asking for measures against the 127 culprits.

He also said Iran and Iraq have signed a memorandum of understanding in this regard adding that two neighbors have formed working groups which will soon hold their third joint meeting.

Khodayian expressed the hope that with cooperation from the vice president for legal affairs and the department for international affairs of the Judiciary, the assassination of General Soleimani will be followed up on more seriously internationally.

Former Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Qods Force Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s PMU, and ten of their deputies were martyred by an armed drone strike as their convoy left Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020. The attack was ordered by then US President Donald Trump.

To date, Iran’s chief civilian prosecutor has indicted tens of individuals in connection with the assassination, among them former president Trump, the head of US Central Command General Kenneth McKenzie Jr., and former US Secretaries of State and Defense Mike Pompeo and Mark Esper.

The file remains open to the further addition of individuals that Tehran determines to have played a role in the killing.

Both commanders were highly popular because of their key role in fighting against the ISIL terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.

Back in January 2020, two days after the assassination, the Iraqi parliament passed a law requiring the Iraqi government to end the presence of the US-led foreign forces in the Arab country.

Last year, Baghdad and Washington reached an agreement on ending the presence of all US combat troops in Iraq by the end of 2021.

The US military declared the end of its combat mission in Iraq this month, but resistance forces remain bent on expelling all American forces, including those who have stayed in the country on the pretext of training Iraqi forces or playing an advisory role.

Since the assassination, Iraqi resistance forces have ramped up pressure on the US military to leave their country, targeting American bases and forces on numerous occasions, at one point pushing the Americans to ask them to “just leave us alone”.

Iran and Iraq in a joint statement in December underlined their determination to identify, prosecute and punish the culprits behind the assassination of General Soleimani and al-Muhandis.

Iran and Iraq have issued a joint statement on an investigation into the “criminal and terrorist” assassination by the US of top anti-terror commanders of the two countries in Baghdad in 2020, Qaribabadi said at the time.

He added that the statement was issued during the second session of a joint Iran-Iraq committee investigating the murder of General Soleimani and al-Muhandis.

Qaribabadi said that in the statement, Iran and Iraq stressed that the assassinations were a “violation of the rules of international law, including relevant international conventions on the fight against terrorism”.