TEHRAN, Jan. 24 (MNA) – Iran and Iraq have initiated serious legal proceedings concerning the US assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Iran’s Vice President for Legal Affairs said.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a Wednesday cabinet session, Mohammad Dehghan said serious measures have been taken since Iraq’s prosecutor general got involved in the case.

He said a lawsuit has also been filed in Iran against the perpetrators of the assassination and that judicial authorities are pursuing the case.

“At the same time, we are following the international proceedings of the martyrdom case of General Qassem Soleimani in international courts, and although it seemed that the United States would not respond to our warning, they responded recently, and we are waiting for them to announce their final opinion on whether we would go into arbitration with them,” he added.

The US military, on the direct order of former president Donald Trump, assassinated General Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units, in a drone strike outside Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.

Iran and Iraq have time and again said that it is their legitimate right under international law to pursue legal proceedings aimed at holding accountable and bringing to justice the perpetrators, organizers, and sponsors of the assassination.

MP/IRN