Iranians, Regional Nations Will Avenge Assassination of General Soleimani, His Companions - Rouhani

By Staff, Agencies

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the Iranian nation and other nations in the region will never forget the assassination of top anti-terror commander, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, and deputy commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and will avenge them in due time.

Rouhani made the remarks on Thursday while addressing a ceremony held to inaugurate a number of Ministry of Energy’s national projects.

January 3 will mark the first anniversary of the US assassination of General Soleimani, the former commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard [IRG]. He was admired as the Middle East's most potent counter-terrorism commander, with a unique charisma.

He was Iran’s leading military advisor helping Iraq and Syria defeat foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists, chiefly Daesh [the Arabic acronym for ‘ISIS/ISIL’].

General Soleimani was martyred in a US drone strike in Baghdad during an official visit. His Iraqi trench mate Muhandis, deputy commander of Iraq’s Hashd al-Sha’abi anti-terror force, was also assassinated along with their other companions when their convoy was hit.

Describing the assassination of the two top commanders as unforgivable injustice, Rouhani said, “[US President Donald] Trump committed many crimes and killed many people, but we will never forget these two cases.”

“These [Americans] must know that we will always lament their loss and the Iranian nation, along with other nations in the region, will one day avenge their assassination,” Rouhani noted.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian president asserted that people in West Asia will finally expel all criminal and invading foreign forces from this region.

“All nations have realized that as long as the Americans are in this region, the region will not see a perfect and desirable [day], and the nations of the region, God willing, will one day expel these criminals and invaders [from the region],” Rouhani said.

A few days after the assassination and as the "first slap," the IRG unleashed a barrage of missiles on January 8 at the United States’ Ain al-Assad air base in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, causing massive damage to the base.

According to top Iranian officials, the ultimate revenge for Soleimani's assassination would be to throw the American forces out of the region.