TEHRAN – Iran’s Defense Minister Amir Hatami said on Sunday that the U.S. made a “strategic mistake” by assassinating top Iranian commander Lt. General Qassem Soleimani, saying such a miscalculation has increased the cost for American military presence in West Asia.

In a message released on the first anniversary of martyrdom of General Soleimani, the defense minister said the assassination was a strategic mistake and miscalculation because the loss of the commander has not affected the resistance movement.
Calling General Soleimani a brave commander in the war on terrorism, he said the U.S. decided to assassinate him because he thwarted Washington’s plots in the region.
 “Nations across the region and the world will realize that the U.S. committed such a crime ... in order to support Daesh,” the defense minister said, according to Tasnim.
Without the efforts of General Soleimani and his comrades, including the armed forces and popular fighters in Syria and Iraq, the Daesh terrorist group would have conquered the entire region, he added.
Europe, Asia and the U.S. owe their security to General Soleimani’s devotion and efforts for the establishment of sustainable peace and security, he stated.
The minister denounced U.S. President Donald Trump’s “criminal and cowardly” move to assassinate Genera Soleimani as an “ill-advised measure” that resulted from frustration and was aimed at making up for the American defeats in the region.
“The notion that physical elimination of a person would halt the resistance current was a strategic mistake that Trump made. With his move, he (Trump) has increased the costs of presence of American forces in the region,” the defense chief underlined.
He also said that confrontation with the U.S. forces in the region should turn into a constant demand, saying the withdrawal of U.S. from the region is the least price it has to pay.
PA/PA