Fake Iran supreme leader account suspended from Twitter after post appearing to call for attack on Trump

The tweet in Farsi had the words "vengeance is inevitable" written in bold red type.

Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei tweeted an apparent call for an attack on former US president Donald Trump and showed a photo of a man appearing to be Trump playing golf
Image: The picture posted by the account, purporting to be Iran's supreme leader, showed a Trump-like figure playing golf under an imposing shadow
Why you can trust Sky News

A Twitter account claiming to belong to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been suspended after it appeared to post a call for an attack on Donald Trump.

The tweet boasted "vengeance is inevitable", near a photograph of a man resembling the former US president swinging a club on a golf course in the shadow of a warplane - or a drone.

Last January, Mr Trump ordered the killing of Iran's top military leader Major General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike at Baghdad airport, prompting outrage in Tehran.

Revenge was inevitable and in the aftermath, Iranian missiles were launched at an airbase housing US troops in Iraq.

The post, pretending to be from the supreme leader, appeared to call for more payback.

Translated, it reads: "Soleimani's murderer and he who ordered it will have to pay. Know that they must take revenge any time possible."

Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei tweeted an apparent call for an attack on former US president Donald Trump and showed a photo of a man appearing to be Trump playing golf
Image: The message, in Farsi, calls for revenge to be taken 'any time possible'

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was tagged in a number of responses to the tweet and it was eventually removed, with a notice saying: "This tweet is from a suspended account."

More on Donald Trump

But the social media platform has come under fire for double standards after taking more time to take it down than removing Mr Trump's inflammatory tweets about the Capitol insurrection earlier this month.

According to a Twitter spokesperson the tweet was in violation of "our abusive behaviour policy", and the account (khamenei_site) "violated our platform manipulation and spam policy, specifically the creation of fake accounts".

The spokesperson confirmed it had been permanently suspended.

The tensions between the US and Iran this time last year inadvertently led to the accidental shooting down of a Ukraine International Airlines plane in Iranian airspace.

Iran is still being called upon by foreign ministers to provide greater transparency over its investigation, having eventually admitted it had shot the plane down just hours after launching ballistic missiles at US bases.