TEHRAN — Mohammad-Hassan Aboutorabi Fard, an interim Friday prayer preacher, has said the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has destroyed the grandeur of the United States in the region.

The IRGC’s glorious operation destroyed the grandeur of the U.S. in the region and marked a beginning to the end of the U.S. illegitimate presence in the Islamic world, Aboutorabi Fard told worshippers in Tehran on Friday.

He was referring to the IRGC’s attack on January 8 against the U.S. airbase of Ain al-Assad in Anbar province in western Iraq, which came as part of its retaliation for an earlier U.S. aggression that killed Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad.

U.S. President Donald Trump had 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 similar remarks, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last 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.

“Without resistance, perseverance, patience, and gratefulness, this success (military response to the Soleimani assassination) could not have been achieved,” Aboutorabi Fard says.

In his sermon, Aboutorabi Fard said he believes the Americans wouldn’t have carried out the assassination if they were aware of the ramifications.

He said Iran’s achievements are due to two precious characteristics of the Iranian people, namely patience and gratefulness.

“Without resistance, perseverance, patience, and gratefulness, this success could not have been achieved,” the cleric said.

He also said the role of General Soleimani in making Europe and Asia secure has not been covert from the experts.

Last week, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the current situation in the Middle East is a direct result of the United States’ “arrogance” and their callous attitude of not trying to find out the details and implications of the provocation.

“The U.S. should realize that there were protests all over the world after Soleimani’s killing all across the world including 430 Indian cities,” he said. 

Meanwhile, entities like Daesh (ISIS) celebrated the killing of Soleimani, the foreign minister further said.

MH/PA