TEHRAN - President of the Supreme National Defense University of Iran has underscored that Tehran is not after waging war, but Tehran will reserve the right to take revenge on the U.S. for assassination of IRGC Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani.

Lieutenant General Soleimani was martyred in a U.S. airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport on Friday morning.

“We do not look for a war, but we’ll definitely seek to restore (our) rights and take revenge,” Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi, once a commander of the IRGC Quds Force, said in an interview with the Tasnim news agency.

“Nobody should doubt that the martyr’s approach may abate or subside,” underlined Vahidi who was defense minister in the second term of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency.

Vahidi also dismissed the American allegations that General Soleimani had plans to attack the American forces in Iraq, stressing that the U.S. must pay the price for assassinating the popular Iranian commander.

The U.S. airstrike also martyred Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMU) and some other forces of the PMU. 

The Pentagon had announced earlier that General Soleimani was killed on Donald Trump’s order.

According to the New York Times, the top Iranian general was killed when an American MQ-9 Reaper drone fired missiles into a convoy that was leaving the airport.

In a decree on Friday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei, who is also Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Armed Forces, appointed Brigadier General Esmaeil Qa’ani as the new commander of the IRGC Quds Force. The appointment came hours after General Soleimani was assassinated.

On Saturday, Tehran University students held rallies in front of the Swiss embassy, which represents U.S. interests in Iran, to condemn the assassination of Soleimani by the U.S. terrorists in Iraq.

MJ/PA