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Tehran (AFP)
The head of the judiciary in Iran, Ibrahim Raisi, warned on Friday that the killers of the commander of the Quds Force in the Revolutionary Guard, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, “will not be safe anywhere in the world”, at a time when Iran began to mark the first anniversary of the assassination of its most prominent military leader in a US attack in Iraq.
Raisi said during a ceremony held at the University of Tehran on the first anniversary of the assassination of Qassem Soleimani on January 3, 2020, that even US President Donald Trump, who ordered Soleimani’s removal, “cannot evade the Justice”.
“Those who played a role in the massacre will not be safe anywhere in the world,” Raisi said.
The commander of the Quds Force, who is assigned to carry out external functions, was killed in the early morning of January 3, 2020, along with the deputy chief of the Iraqi People’s Mobilization Forces, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in an airstrike near from Baghdad airport, in an assassination operation that placed the Islamic Republic in front of challenges in terms of regional role. Soleimani was one of its most prominent creators.
The assassination of a commander the size of Soleimani, by direct order of Trump, increased tensions between Washington and Tehran. Although the latter bombed Ain al-Assad’s base in Iraq a few days later, where the US soldiers are located, Iranian officials claim that “revenge” against those involved in the assassination has yet to be rounded.
For his part, Khalaf Soleimani, who heads the Quds Force, Brigadier General Ismail Qaani, warned during the ceremony at the University of Tehran that the answer could come anywhere.
“From inside their homes (in the United States), people can come out to respond to their dirty act,” he said.
The broken relations between Tehran and Washington for nearly four decades witnessed growing tension during the Trump era, who adopted a policy of “maximum pressure” on the Islamic Republic, and in 2018 unilaterally withdrew from the agreement on the Iranian nuclear program and he reimposed tough economic sanctions on Tehran.
Since the summer of 2019, the two countries have twice come to the brink of direct confrontation, especially after Soleimani’s assassination.
© 2021 AFP
