TEHRAN- President Ebrahim Raisi on Tuesday urges swift and thorough investigation into the 2020 assassinations of Iran’s senior anti-terror commander Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis of Iraq.

In a meeting in Tehran with Faeq Zaidan, chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq, Raisi issued a warning against wasting time in the ongoing attempts to bring the culprits of the terrorist act to justice.

Raisi also said that “pursuance of the case until the achievement of result will show that Iran and Iraq stop at nothing in their bid to enforce administration of justice against those behind the assassination.”

He added Iran is aware of Iraq’s determination to deal with the Americans’ “appalling” misconduct and its attempts to bring those responsible for the crime to justice.

The Iraqi official, for his part, said that one of the most significant instances of Tehran and Baghdad’s judicial collaboration is the effort to bring individuals who had participated in the “terrorist crime” to justice.

On January 3, 2020, General Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), were assassinated in a U.S. drone strike close to Baghdad International Airport. The strike was ordered by former U.S. President Donald Trump. 

Due to their crucial contributions in the fight against the Daesh terrorists, notably in Iraq and Syria, both commanders enjoyed great respect throughout West Asia.