TEHRAN – The United States officially unveils “targeted and state terrorism” by threatening to assassinate the new commander of the IRGC Quds Force, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Thursday.

Mousavi’s remarks came as Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran, told the Arabic-language daily Asharq al-Awsat that Esmail Ghaani, who is successor of Lieutenant General Soleimani, could be assassinated, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Mousavi said, “Now, after the Zionist regime, the United States is the second regime which has officially announced using its government possibilities and armed forces to take terrorist action.”

The U.S. resort to terrorist actions shows Washington’s “weakness and frustration” and also “confusion” among its officials, the ministry spokesman said.

He also urged the international community to condemn state terrorism, because “the continuation of this trend would sooner or later befall everyone.”

General Soleimani was assassinated in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad on January 3.

Russia condemns U.S. threats to assassinate Ghaani

On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also condemned the U.S. threats to assassinate Ghaani as “unacceptable.”

“I state once again that such statements are unacceptable for us. Such remarks have been made beyond rights and law, and representatives of world states are not entitled to utter them,” the Arabic service of Russia’s Sputnik news agency quoted Zakharova as saying at a news briefing in the capital Moscow, according to Press TV.

Immediately after the Soleimani assassination, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Ghaani as the new commander of the IRGC Quds Force.

In a retaliatory move, Iran fired dozens of ballistic missiles at a major U.S. military base in Iraq on January 8, shattering the myth that the United States is a superpower that no country can militarily counter it.

Top Iranian political and military figures had vowed “harsh revenge” for the martyrdom of General Soleimani.

Ayatollah Khamenei said on January 8 that such military actions are not enough and the U.S. forces must leave the region.

Following the U.S. assassination of General Soleimani and Iraq’s PMU deputy chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, on January 5 the Iraqi parliament backed a resolution to ask the government to end an agreement with Washington to station 5,200 troops in Iraq.

"The Iraqi government must work to end the presence of any foreign troops on Iraqi soil and prohibit them from using its land, airspace or water for any reason," the Iraqi parliament said.

Ayatollah Khamenei also described the assassination of Soleimani as a “cowardly act” that brought “disgrace” upon the U.S.

In a speech at the UN Conference on Disarmament, Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh, Iran’s ambassador and permanent representative to the UN office in Geneva, said that Soleimani’s assassination was “ridiculing principles of human civilization”.

He warned about the consequences of the U.S. “terrorist crime” and urged the international community to react to this move.

NA/PA



