TEHRAN — Seyyed Ahmad Khatami, a top Iranian cleric and Tehran’s Friday prayer leader, asserted on Friday that Donald Trump and everyone who took part in assassinating Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani on January 3, 2020, will be severely punished.

Addressing worshippers in Tehran, Khatami said Iran had two Soleimanis, one who was alive and whose name was the symbol of resistance and courage, and a martyr who fought bravely and did amazingly.

“The Americans had said that it would take at least ten years for Daesh to leave Mosul, but this great man [Soleimani] said that there would be no news of the Daesh government for another three months.”

A member of the European Parliament has acknowledged that nobody did more to defeat ISIL terrorists in Iraq than the legendary Iranian commander.

"While the U.S. and Allies were responsible for the rise of ISIL and the arming of Jihadists Groups, nobody did more to defeat ISIL in Iraq than General Soleimani," Mick Wallace said in a post on his Twitter account.

Wallace also condemned the international community for not taking any action about the assassination of the top Iranian general, saying, "Where was the condemnation from the International Community when he was murdered by the US...?"

In July 2020, a UN expert said the U.S. attack that killed the top Iranian general violated international law.

"Major General Soleimani was in charge of Iran military strategy, and actions, in Syria and Iraq. But absent an actual imminent threat to life, the course of action taken by the US was unlawful," Agnes Callamard, UN's special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, said.

“Huge funeral for Gen. Soleimani was a kind of military exercise”

The Tehran Friday prayer leader also said the funeral for General Soleimani which was attended by tens of millions in Iran and Iraq was a kind of military exercise.

General Soleimani’s “pure blood” resulted in the fleeing of the American troops from Afghanistan, and it will soon be the same in Iraq, according to a resolution passed by the Iraqi parliament, the cleric pointed out. 

He added the dawning of victory in Yemen is obvious thanks to the general’s “pure blood”.

“Iran slapped the United States with an attack on Ain al-Assad [airbase], many of whom were sent to hell but censored [by the U.S. media]. But this was not our final revenge. All the perpetrators, commanders, executors, advisers and the criminal Trump who claimed responsibility for this crime will be punished,” he remarked. 

Iran’s attack on the U.S. airbase in Iraq shattered the U.S. image in the world. It was the first time that U.S. was attacked since the Second World War.

"Iran’s policy is deterrence”

Khatami also said last week Israel attacked a warehouse in Latakia, Syria, and struck a food and medicine warehouse. 

According to the Friday prayer leader, this means that the Zionist regime is a regime of “constant aggression” and “will have no destiny but inevitable destruction.” 

Referring to the holding of the Great Prophet 17 military exercise, he said the great message of the drill was the example of God’s word in Holy Quran which says “Prepare against them whatever you can of [military] power and war-horses, awing thereby the enemy of Allah, and your enemy, and others besides them, whom you do not know, but Allah knows them. And whatever you spend in the way of Allah will be repaid to you in full, and you will not be wronged.”

“Our policy is deterrence and that is why this exercise was held. 16 missiles have been fired, 4 of which can reach Tel Aviv, and if you have the least imagination and dream of aggression against the heroic nation of Iran, with these missiles, your bright day will become a dark evening,” Khatami concluded.