TEHRAN - Ali Akbar Velayati, a top foreign policy adviser to the Leader, said on Friday that the United States and its mercenaries will pay for their terrorist crime in assassinating IRGC Quds Force Commander Major General Qassem Soleimani.

Velayati said in a message that martyrdom of General Soleimani will strengthen resistance.

General Soleimani was martyred in a U.S. airstrike on Baghdad’s international airport on Friday morning. The Pentagon announced that U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the attack on Soleimani.

NA/PA