ReutersJan 23, 2021 12:16:26 AM

DUBAI (Reuters) – The Supreme Leader of Iran’s website on Friday featured a picture of a golfer resembling former President Donald Trump who was apparently attacked by a drone, along with threats of revenge for the assassination of a top Iranian general at a U.S. -Drone attack.

The picture first appeared on a Persian-language Twitter feed that included a link to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s website. Twitter removed this feed on Friday, claiming it was fake.

Below the picture on the website were remarks from Khamenei in December prior to the first anniversary of the Trump-ordered assassination by drone of General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq.

“Both the murderers and those who ordered it should know that revenge can happen at any time,” read the comments above, which showed the shadow of a drone over the lone golfer. Trump was not named.

Tensions between Tehran and Washington soared after 2018 when Trump abandoned a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers and imposed crippling sanctions on Iran.

Tehran retaliated for the murder of Soleimani with rocket attacks against US targets in Iraq, but both sides withdrew from further confrontation.

The tension and risk of war seemed to subside with the end of Trump’s tenure when his sworn successor, President Joe Biden, said Wednesday that Washington was trying to extend and strengthen Iran’s nuclear constraints through diplomacy.

An official close to Khamenei’s inner circle said: “The aim (of the tweet) was to remind the player (Trump) that leaving office does not mean he is safe and the assassination of our martyr Soleimani is forgotten. “

“And now American troops cannot protect him,” the official, who did not want to be named, told Reuters without going into detail.

Soleimani, the supreme commander of the Iranian elite quds force, was responsible for clandestine operations overseas and was widely regarded as the second most powerful figure in Iran after Khamenei.

The Iranian military and clergy have said Tehran would choose the time and place of Soleimani’s revenge.

A Tehran-based analyst said the threat could be an end in itself. “The intent of the tweet seems to keep the specter of vengeance alive, which in itself may be some kind of vengeance,” said the analyst, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject.

A Twitter spokeswoman said the @ khamenei_site account had been banned for violating the company’s platform tampering and spam policy, including creating fake accounts. When asked if the @ khamenei_site account was fake, she said it was.

Iranian officials were not immediately available to comment.

The golf picture tweet was retweeted @ Khamenei-fa from Khamenei’s main account in Persian, although it appeared to have been deleted later. The text and graphics of the tweet, later published by Khamenei’s official website (farsi.khamenei.ir), were also widely quoted by the Iranian media.

Khamenei’s @ Khamenei_fa account and his main English Twitter account, which did not include the golfer image tweet, were still operational.

Earlier this month, Twitter removed a tweet from Khamenei saying vaccines made in the US and the UK are unreliable and could “contaminate other nations.” The platform said the tweet violated its rules on misinformation.

Exiled human rights activists again called on Twitter to ban Khamenei. “I hope the world can see how they (Iranian officials) can use social media to promote violence,” US-based activist Massih Alinejad told Reuters.

Twitter finally banned Trump’s own account after some of his supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, citing the risk of further incitement to violence.

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom and Elizabeth Culliford; Philippa Fletcher; Editing by Jon Boyle and Howard Goller)

This story was not edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by automatic feed.

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