Iranian General Slams US Covid Sanctions ‘Savagery’, Soleimani Killing, Warns ‘Revenge’ Yet to Come

Earlier, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei weighed in on the US presidential election, saying Iran’s “calculated and clear” policy would remain unchanged regardless of who won the office.

Iran’s enemies should continue to expect “revenge” for the January 2020 assassination of Revolutionary Guards Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Committee Deputy Chairman Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Hossein Bagheri has warned.

“The brutal assassination of Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in the darkness of night and under the direct order of the criminal US regime is a clear indication of the fight against Islam and a confirmation of state terrorism,” Bagheri said, speaking at the International Islamic Unity Conference on Tuesday night, his comments cited by Mehr News.

Calling Iran’s missile strikes on two US bases in Iraq a “temporary balm" for the Muslim world, Bagheri warned that Iran’s adversaries “must await a revenge at the level of the great names of Gen. Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis”.

A US drone strike assassinated Soleimani and al-Muhandis in Baghdad on 3 January. Five days later, on 8 January, Iran launched over a dozen missiles at a pair of US bases in Iraq, causing over 100 American military personnel to sustain traumatic brain injuries. Iranian officials have repeatedly warned that further revenge attacks would continue. In August, a senior Revolutionary Guard Corps commander said the main reason Iran had not retaliated against the US by assassinating a high-ranking American military official was because it had not been able to “find anyone who is equally valuable”.

Speaking at the conference, Bagheri reiterated that Soleimani was ‘beloved’ by both Iranians and non-Iranians for his devotion to the Islamic faith and for his fight against Daesh (ISIS)* and other Islamist terrorist groups.

Before his death, Soleimani commanded the Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds extraterritorial fighting force for about two decades, carrying out operations against Taliban* militants in Afghanistan, and Daesh and al-Qaeda* affiliated militants in Syria in Iraq. He also provided advisory support to Hezbollah during the Lebanon-Israel war of 2006.

American ‘Barbarism’

Bagheri went on to blast Washington for its “barbarism” for its imposition of crushing economic sanctions against Iran, notwithstanding the coronavirus pandemic, calling it the culmination of US “savagery”.

“The peak of the United States’ savagery becomes evident when it imposes the toughest economic sanctions, so much so that it has become very difficult to procure medicines for patients,” the commander said.

Suggesting that the Islamic world had entered a “critical juncture,” Bagheri also slammed the recent decision by some Muslim states to normalise ties with Israel. “Some heads of Islamic states have now become so brazen that they have resorted to the wicked United States and have backstabbed the Islamic community by normalising their relations with the Zionist regime. These rulers have relied on the hollow power called the US, which itself is on the decline and is scared of the resistance front,” he said.

The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan recently normalised relations with Israel, joining Egypt and Jordan in maintaining diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv. 17 Arab countries continue to have no relations with the Jewish State.

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* A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.