TEHRAN – President Hassan Rouhani has lauded General Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top anti-terror commander who was assassinated by U.S. almost a year ago, as a hero for the Iranian nation as well as nations of the region and Muslims across the world.

“The martyrdom of Martyr Soleimani was a revenge against the Islamic Republic and a revenge against the regional nations and their independence,” Rouhani said at a cabinet session on Wednesday.

He said Soleimani’s assassination was a revenge against the great nations that stood up to conspiracies and Zionism and thwarted the enemies’ plots.

On January 3, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered drone strikes that martyred General Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in Iraq. The assassination, which took place near Baghdad’s international airport, was welcomed by ISIS.

The U.S. cited at the time an imminent threat posed by Soleimani against U.S. interests in the region. General Soleimani, however, was on a peace mission to Iraq that was targeted by the U.S. military. 

American political analyst Stephen Lendman has said “Trump provided no evidence of a Soleimani threat.” Lendman also said the claim by Trump that “he acted in self-defense was a bald-faced Big Lie.”

Rouhani said the motive behind Soleimani’s assassination was to revive Daesh (ISIS) terrorist group.

“Daesh was a mercenary of the Zionists and Americans,” he said. “When they were injured, the Israelis would took them in and healed them, and they gave them weapons wherever they needed weapons.”

According to Rouhani, the Zionists and the American rulers benefit from instability and chaos in the region.

“Nobody benefits from the instability of Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan except the Zionists; all countries in the region suffer from instability,” he stated.

The president added, “By assassinating Martyr Soleimani, they wanted to take revenge on a great man who stood up to them well and tactfully. Some think that the general was an unparalleled brave man. This is true, but it is not only his courage but also his tact that is important.”

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

Iran has vowed to target whoever had a role in the cowardly assassination of the general.

A senior Iraqi judicial official said on Monday that appropriate court orders will be issued in the coming days regarding the suspects in the January 3 assassination. Haider Ali Nouri, a supervising member of the Information Center of the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council, made the announcement in a statement as he was explaining the latest developments related to the case.

“The Iraqi Judiciary has made good progress in the investigation of this incident and intends to put a definite end to it,” the senior judicial official said.

He said the Special Court of Inquiry has completed the case and collected all the evidence by gathering the statements and testimony of witnesses to the incident, such as the staff of the Baghdad International Airport and the security forces present there.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the special aide to the speaker of the Iranian Parliament on international affairs, said on Sunday that the list of individuals involved in the assassination of Soleimani has been updated from 45 to 48.

Iran’s Judiciary has added new names to the list of individuals involved in the January assassination, Amir-Abdollahian said.

He added the Judiciary has stepped up efforts to prosecute the individuals who ordered and perpetrated the criminal act, adding that six countries have been given warrants from Iran’s Judiciary so far for the arrest of the culprits.

MH/PA