Chairman of the Iranian Armed Forces Joint Chiefs of Staff Major General Mohammad Baqeri said revenge for the assassination of counterterrorism commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani has “no expiration date,” stressing that the withdrawal of U.S. forces from West Asia is “inevitable.” ”
Baqeri made the remarks in a message released Thursday on the cusp of the first anniversary of General Soleimani’s martyrdom at the hands of the U.S. military on Jan. 3.
He stressed the need for efforts to understand General Soleimani’s school of thought, saying Iran and other freedom-seeking nations are determined to take revenge on those who ordered and committed the terrorist crime.
“January 3 commemorates a tragic event in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran in which a brave man who defeated IS – the most violent Takfiri terrorist organization sponsored by the US and its stooges – for the security of nations, especially the Muslim Ummah, was cowardly martyred by the most vicious enemy of the world’s Muslims and the Islamic Republic, i.e. the arrogant and terrorist US government,” he added.
Elsewhere in his message, General Baqeri said, “Martyr Soleimani was a national and Islamic hero as well as a great commander of the resistance front who united the Muslim nations under a single command and school of thought and strengthened the resistance front against the arrogant Zionist child-killing regime and broke the hollow hegemony of the US. “
The enemy, unable to face General Soleimani on the battlefield, killed the commander through an act of terrorism, under the idea that this would break the chain of resistance, he noted.
However, the immense funeral processions showed that the school of thought established by General Soleimani in the region is much stronger than it could be shaken by a cruel act.
General Baqeri also stressed that the commander’s martyrdom “strengthened the determination of the young revolutionary generation … to drive the United States out of West Asia, which was the wish of General Soleimani and all resistance fighters around the world.”
“Revenge for the assassination of General Soleimani has no expiration date and the revolutionary youth of the region and the world will now make multiple efforts to achieve this goal,” he said.
General Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Brigades of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (Sepah), and his Iraqi comrade Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Units, were assassinated along with their companions on Jan. 3 in a U.S. terrorist attack carried out directly on the orders of U.S. President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport.
Both commanders enjoyed widespread popularity for their key roles in destroying IS terrorists in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.
Two days after the Washington attack, the Iraqi parliament approved a bill calling for the withdrawal of all U.S.-led foreign forces from the country.
by Basit Abbasi