A conservative paper has come under criticism for publishing a presumably satirical piece that suggested U.S. President Donald Trump will be assassinated in retaliation for the 2020 assassination of a top Iranian commander.
In a piece printed on April 5, Kayhan Daily recounted an apparently hypothetical conversation between two individuals in which one of them says Trump will receive “several bullets to his empty head any day now to avenge the blood of Martyr Soleimani.”
On Monday, administration spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said the suggestion didn’t reflect the Islamic Republic’s policy and played into the hands of “the enemy.”
She said justice in the case of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani’s assassination will be sought through legal means.
“As said repeatedly, the Islamic Republic of Iran supports peace and will use all legitimate and legal tools both domestically and internationally to reclaim the rights of the Iranian nation,” Mohajerani said. “The pen should be in the service of national interests and maintaining the country’s security, not cause inflammation.”
The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance had earlier registered a note of admonishment to Kayhan over the same piece.
The U.S. military assassinated General Soleimani and his companions near the Baghdad airport on an order by Trump in January 2020. Soleimani was in the Iraqi capital at the time to relay a message via the Iraqi government to Saudi Arabia on the resumption of ties with Saudi Arabia.
