Khamenei hints Iran could strike Trump while golfing in ominous Twitter threat

Iran’s Supreme Leader has taken to Twitter to make a thinly veiled threat to former US president Donald Trump over the killing of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. 

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei posted a picture to his Farsi Twitter account of a man on a golf course, which bears a striking resemblance to the former president, as the shadow of what appears to be a stealth bomber flies over head. 

Accompanying the tweet, Khamenei wrote, “Revenge is inevitable.”

“Revenge must be taken on Soleimani’s killer and the person who ordered the murder of Soleimani,” he added. 

Soleimani was Iran’s top military commander when he was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad, on 3 January, 2020.

On the recent anniversary of Soleimani’s death, a judge in Baghdad's investigative court issued an arrest warrant for Trump for premeditated murder.

The accompanying message in Khamenei's recent tweet was first used by the Iranian supreme leader in a tweet in December, but the ominous picture is a new addition, and comes at a time of uncertainty between the US and Iran. 

President Joe Biden, who took office on Wednesday, has previously vowed to rejoin the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, if strict compliance of the rules is observed by Tehran. 

Following the Biden's inauguration, Iran called on the new president for action and “not just words”.

Read more: A year after Soleimani's killing, tensions simmer in Iraq

Iran has been struggling under the weight of sanctions, since Trump pulled the US out of the deal in 2018. 

Some Twitter users compared the picture posted by Khamenei, to the inciting tweets that got former president Trump removed from the platform, and called for similar action. 

“@jack are you reading these?This tweet is ok?” said one user. 

Khamenei did fall foul of Twitter’s guidelines in December, when he claimed the Covid-19 vaccines made in the US and UK were unreliable and could be designed to “contaminate other nations”.

Twitter removed this post, saying that it was a violation of its rules against misinformation. 

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