TEHRAN — A senior foreign policy advisor to the parliament speaker says Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani was an “outstanding diplomat” and a “great politician” besides being a general.

“Given the circumstances, he used diplomatic approaches to carry out his mission and he followed the rules of negotiation,” Hossein Amir Abdollahian said on Sunday, IRNA reported.

He said General Soleimani was truly a general of peace and security.

“He understood theories and ways of negotiation very well and believed in diplomacy as a tool and path towards reaching his goal,” the advisor said.

U.S. President Donald Trump ordered strikes that martyred General Soleimani, chief of the IRGC Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), on January 3.

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.

Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran, told the Arabic-language daily Asharq al-Awsat on January 23 that Esmail Ghaani, who is successor of General Soleimani, could also be assassinated.

Responding to the remarks, IRGC Chief Hossein Salami warned the U.S. and Israel that none of their military commanders will be safe should they take action against Iranian generals.

“The Americans and the Zionists beware that if they threaten our commanders with assassination and if they implement their threat, life of none of their commanders will be safe,” Major General Salami said.

MH/PA