TEHRAN- Iran’s response to Israel’s assassination of a top military advisor in Syria, according to the chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), will be confined to the complete overthrow of the occupying regime.

Major General Hossein Salami made remarks during a funeral procession on Thursday for Brigadier General Seyyed Razi Mousavi, an IRGC commander who was assassinated three days ago in a terrorist Israeli bombing in a Damascus suburb.

“Seyyed Razi’s martyrdom came out of the incapability of the Zionist regime,” he said. “We will never exercise patience in the face of the martyrdom of our people. Seyyed Razi’s revenge will be nothing but the elimination of the Zionist regime.”

Salami said that Mousavi was “one of the most experienced and effective” resistance front commanders for the IRGC.

He stated that Mousavi had never strayed from the field of jihad (endeavor for the sake of God) throughout the last 45 years and that the commander was a close companion of Iran’s renowned anti-terror hero Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.

In January 2020, General Soleimani was assassinated in Iraq by the U.S. His pivotal role in combating the terrorist group Daesh Takfiri, which was founded by the U.S. and sponsored by Israel, was the reason for his great reverence across the region, especially in Iraq and Syria.

“He remained steadfast after the assassination of Haj Qassem and accompanied Qaani,” Salami said.

“The enemy knew him better than us because it had received severe blows from him. The enemy knew what role and influence he had on the endless chain of power.”

Salami said that the Palestinians themselves coordinated and carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, which was initiated on October 7 against Israel by Hamas. 

He said that the operation was a response to 75 years of Israeli occupation, atrocities against Palestinian youth, the regime’s nightly incursions into the West Bank, and the desecration of the al-Aqsa Mosque.

The resistance groups “Hamas and Jihad are capable of producing weapons inside Gaza… The resistance will not end, but what ends is the Zionist regime’s power.”

He went on to add, “Certainly, the Zionist regime is not capable of providing a peaceful life for the world’s Jews. It is not able to continue in the face of the people of Gaza.”

Iranians bid farewell to IRGC commander

Thousands of mourners flocked to Tehran’s renowned Imam Hussein Square on Thursday to pay their respects to General Mousavi.

High-profile military commanders and government officials were also present at the ceremony.

Earlier, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei conducted the burial prayer for the dead commander.

The Leader expressed condolences to Mousavi’s family and praised his relentless jihad.

Funeral processions for the deceased IRGC adviser have recently taken place at the shrines of Sayyida Zaynab and Sayyida Ruqayya in Damascus, as well as the mausoleum of the first Shia Imam, Imam Ali, in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf and finally, he was put to rest in the mausoleum of Imamzadeh Saleh in northern Tehran on Thursday.