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(Reuters) – The US assassination of Senior General Qassem Soleimani will not deter the Iranian resistance, a senior commander said on Friday as tensions rose in the run-up to the first anniversary of the drone strike.
The United States killed Soleimani, leader of the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, in Iraq on January 3, 2020. Washington had accused him of plotting attacks by Iranian-aligned militias against US forces in the region.
Days after the US drone strike, Iran retaliated with a rocket attack on an Iraqi airbase where US forces were stationed, and Iranian forces on high alert mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian airliner taking off from Tehran.
Esmail Ghaani, who succeeded Soleimani as head of the elite Quds force, said on Friday that Iran was still ready to respond.
“From inside your own home, someone may emerge who retaliates for your crime,” he told a televised event to mark the anniversary at the University of Tehran.
“American mischief will not deter the Quds force from pursuing its path of resistance,” he added.
Two US B-52 bombers flew over the Middle East on Wednesday in what US officials said was a message of deterrence to Iran ahead of the first anniversary.
On Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused US President Donald Trump of trying to fabricate a pretext to attack Iran, and said Tehran would defend itself strongly.
Representatives from Iran’s allies and regional movements in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Gaza also spoke at the anniversary event on Friday.
([email protected]; Edited by Andrew Heavens)
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