TEHRAN — The martyrdom of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani was a new beginning for the fallen general, says IRGC chief, noting that “Martyr Soleimani” is more alive and more dangerous for the enemy than “Qassem Soleimani”.

“Hajj Qassem had displaced and bewildered the enemy and was a man of changing the power balance at the peak of inequality,” ISNA quoted Major General Hossein Salami as saying on Monday.

He made the remarks at a ceremony to introduce the new commander of the IRGC Quds Force, attended by senior commanders of the Iranian armed forces.

“General Martyr Soleimani had taken his own revenge on the enemy in several occasions long before his martyrdom,” Salami said.

He added that Soleimani’s activities had worn the U.S. and the Zionist regime out.

“In Haj Qassem’s view, there was no equation that could not be solved. At the heart of danger, he was a mountain of calm and serenity and had drawn the enemies into defeat,” Salami said.

The remarks came more than two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered strikes that martyred Lieutenant General Soleimani, chief of the IRGC Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).

In the early hours of January 8, the IRGC attacked the U.S. airbase of Ain al-Assad in Anbar province in western Iraq as part of its promised “tough revenge” for the U.S. terror attack.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday that Iran’s revenge “was a blow to America.”

“Of course, it was an effective military blow, but more importantly and higher than military blow, this was a blow to America’s grandeur as a superpower,” Ayatollah Khamenei said while addressing worshippers during the Tehran Friday Prayers.

MH/PA