Commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says Iran will continue down the path of resistance that his predecessor, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, pursued prior to his assassination by the United States.
“We will continue down the path of Martyr Soleimani with honor and pride, and will stand against the oppressors of the world,” Brigadier General Esmaeil Qa’ani said Tuesday at a conference in Tehran on Iran’s legal and international claims related to the eight-year Iraqi war on Iran during the 1980s.
“The path of resistance is growing stronger every day, contrary to the situation of the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that of the Zionist regime, which has been building a wall around itself for security,” he added.
General Soleimani, the former commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, was assassinated along with his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Units, in a US drone strike ordered by ex-president Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.
Both commanders were highly popular because of the key role they played in eliminating the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.
Qa’ani further said General Soleimani spoke to the enemies with the strongest language and that his greatest weapon was his logic and power of expression.
The anti-terror commander was directly engaged in the fight against the terrorists, he said, adding, “He spoke to everyone in their own language.”
Soleimani was carrying Iran’s message to Saudi Arabia
Speaking at the same event, Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri said General Soleimani had was carrying Tehran’s message to Riyadh at the time of his assassination.
“He was a foreign guest in Iraq. He was carrying a message in response to an [earlier] message of Saudi Arabia and the Iraqi prime minister. He had openly entered Iraq on a civilian passenger plane. He was not hit with an ordinary bomb, but with a bomb that is used to target armored equipment,” he said.
“The bomb that hit General Soleimani’s car can cut 30 centimeters deep into steel…. They committed such a crime to tear their bodies apart,” he added.