TEHRAN – Tehran’s Art Bureau held a memorial service on Saturday for Quds Force commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani who was martyred in a U.S. air raid in Baghdad on Friday.

The ceremony was attended by a large number of artists, cineastes, poets and the commander’s companions.

Speaking at the ceremony, Kurosh Zarei, the director of the bureau’s Center for Dramatic Arts said, “The commander belonged to all the peace-seeking people in the world, and today they are saddened by the great loss of the martyr.”

The director of the music center of the bureau, Milad Erfanpur, also recited a poem in memory of the commander.

Homayun Amirzadeh, Soleimani’s companion during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, said, “The commander’s popularity does not belong to today or yesterday, it is rooted in the Sacred Defense (Iran-Iraq war) era.”

Hojjatoleslam Ali Shirazi, the representative of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in the Quds Force, also called Soleimani an artist and said, “He always deemed himself a soldier, and today, the whole country of Iran is in tears for him.”

“People saw honesty in him. When he announced the elimination of Daesh, nobody had doubts about him because they believed in him. When he used to say that he loved the children of the martyrs, he really felt the pain of the martyrs’ children. They all used to call him father or uncle,” he said.

Deputy Culture Minister for Artistic Affairs Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini, Rudaki Foundation Managing Director Ali-Akbar Safipur, filmmakers Reza Mirkarimi and Shahram Karami, and writers Habib Ahmadzadeh and Mostafa Rahmandoost were among the artists attending the memorial ceremony.

Photo: A number of artists and cultural figures attend a memorial service for Quds Force commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani at Tehran’s Art Bureau on January 4, 2020. (Mehr/Mohammad Mohsenifar) 

RM/MMS/YAW