TEHRAN — The commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says Iran’s response to the U.S. assassination of its top general, Qassem Soleimani, destroyed the United States’ fictitious grandeur in the world.

“Our response to the assassination of General Soleimani was completely a military response because the response should have been clear and comprehensible for the whole world,” ISNA on Monday quoted Major General Hossein Salami as saying, citing Al Mayadeen.

The American rulers “are used to confronting any government and receiving no response from those governments,” Salami said. “And this matter led them to make a miscalculation regarding Iran.”

He added that it was necessary to stop them once and for all and make them change their calculations with regard to Iran.

“Our response to General Soleimani’s assassination was strategic and limited, but it showed our power,” Salami stated.

“Iran’s response was carried out in a specific geographical point but its impact was worldwide,” he said, adding that the retaliatory measure was completely “defensive” and “legitimate”, and that Iran was entitled to defend itself.

On January 3, 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).

“Our response to General Soleimani’s assassination was strategic and limited, but it showed our power.” 

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.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said Trump was misled to believe his country would get away with the assassination of General Soleimani.

Trump believed that the assassination would augment U.S. security but it worked the other way around, Zarif said in an interview with NBC News’ Richard Engel in Munich on Friday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

“It was the beginning of the end of the U.S. presence in the region, and we were very close to a war because the United States initiated an act of aggression against Iran in a very, excuse the language, cowardly way,” Zarif said.

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 the successor of General Soleimani, could also be assassinated as well.

Responding to the remarks soon afterwards, General 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,” he said.

MH/PA