Iran on Sunday said a death sentence was the 'very least' punishment that should be handed down to its one-time foe former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
"Execution is the very least sentence they can hand down to Saddam Hussein," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said on the day the verdict in the trial of Saddam and former cohorts was due to be delivered.
Saddam Hussein is still a hated figure in Iran for the devastating eight-year 1980-1988 war waged between the two countries, which claimed around one million lives on both sides.
Hosseini said a possible death sentence by hanging against Saddam "does not mean the investigations into other crimes, especially during the eight-year war, should be forgotten."
He recalled that Iran has lodged a complaint with the Iraqi government against Saddam over the war, "and they promised to consider it but not in this court which is not able to do so but in another court."
Iran's judiciary last year sent an indictment against Saddam to Iraq, with the list of complaints including genocide, crimes against humanity and the use of chemical weapons during the 1980-88 war.
Ties have warmed considerably between Iran and Iraq since the fall of Saddam, with Tehran becoming one of the closest allies of the government in Baghdad.