Gen. Soleimani, colleagues martyred in struggle against US imperialism: Analyst

Iranian Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and his colleagues were “martyred in the struggle against US imperialism and subjugation,” an analyst says.

Dennis Etler made the remarks in an interview with Press TV when asked about US President Donald Trump who said Wednesday that his administration would impose new sanctions against Iran and would ask the NATO military alliance to get more involved in the Middle East following Iran’s retaliation for the US assassination of the top Iranian general.

Trump says US will impose new sanctions against Iran after Tehran’s retaliation

US President Donald Trump says his administration will impose new sanctions against Iran following Iran’s retaliation for the US assassination of a top Iranian general.

Iran launched more than a dozen missiles on two airbases in Iraq housing US troops early on Wednesday after the US military carried out an airstrike on the direction of Trump at Baghdad’s international airport early on Friday, assassinating Soleimani and the second-in-command of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, as well as eight other companions.

“The assassination of Lt. General Qaseem Soleimani at the direction of US President Trump was an act of war. The US under Trump has been waging an undeclared war against Iran ever since its withdrawal from the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and the imposition of ever-increasing severe economic and political sanctions in a campaign of applying maximum pressure on the Iranian people and nation,” Etler said on Wednesday.

“The US and its minions in the controlled Western news media try to portray Lt. General Soleimani and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard he commanded as terrorists, bad actors, deserving of their fate. But, who are the real terrorists and bad actors? Why are Americans dying in the Middle East? Is it not because of the resistance of the people against US invasion and occupation of their homeland?”

He went on to say that the US, under a false pretext, invaded Iraq and later supported terrorists in its neighbor Syria “and still to this day fully supports Saudi Arabia’s genocidal war against the Yemeni people. So, who it may be asked are the real terrorists and bad actors in the Middle East.”

Etler also said that it is the United States that is a bad actor in the Middle East, destabilizing the region and supporting terrorists there not Iran.

“It is the US that has destabilized the Middle East, not Iran. It is the US that supports terrorist attacks in the Middle East, not Iran. It is the US that unilaterally tears up negotiated treaties, who is a bad actor, not Iran. And it is the US President and his advisers who are the true terrorists and war-mongers, not Lt. General Soleimani nor his colleagues. They are true patriots and freedom-fighters who have been martyred in the struggle against US imperialism and subjugation.”

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