TEHRAN – Following his interview with the NBC News on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Friday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on his Twitter page that the pullout of the U.S. forces in the West Asia region “has already begun”.

"The end of the United States in the region has already begun,” Zarif wrote.

In his Twitter, Zarif added, "Bad advice to President Trump has led him to make the wrong decisions."

On January 3, the U.S. assassinated top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad’s international airport. According to the Pentagon, the attack took place upon direct order by Trump.

In his interview with the NBC, Zarif said, “We were very close to war because the United States initiated an act of aggression against Iran in a very, excuse the language, cowardly way.” 

The foreign minister said since the U.S. “couldn’t confront Soleimani in the battlefield so they hit him during the dark of night through a drone attack on a car carrying him on a peace mission.” 

In retaliation to the assassination, five days later, on January 8, Iran fired dozens of ballistic missiles at a major U.S. airbase in western Iraq, dealing a great blow to the U.S.

The Pentagon recently acknowledged that 109 U.S. service members suffered traumatic brain injuries (TBI) despite the fact that they had hunkered down in bunkers for hours.

Iran targeted Ein al-Assad base from which U.S. drones had been flown to target Soleimani.

Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist, said on Twitter: “We shouldn’t hide our veterans’ injuries just to pretend like we’re invincible”.