TEHRAN- According to Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, the Israeli regime assassinated Brigadier General Seyyed Razi Mousavi, a key military aide, out of rage over the regime’s military, political, and security setbacks.

Over the span of more than 80 days, the Israeli regime has experienced two setbacks. Referring to Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, which the Palestinian Hamas Resistance Movement launched against the regime from Gaza, the foreign minister declared on Saturday that “the first defeat was on October 7 when Israel collapsed in terms of politics and security in every sense of the word.”

Speaking on the sidelines of a ceremony in Tehran to remember Seyyed Razi Mousavi, a top advisor in Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps who was assassinated in an Israeli bombing in Syria's capital Damascus on December 25, Amir Abdollahian underlined, “The regime has suffered a military setback as a result of the resistance in Gaza.”

The top diplomat praised the martyr for his “honest efforts to fight terrorism and Zionism” and achieve maximum security at the national and regional levels, adding that his path will certainly continue.

“In an unjust manner, the criminal Zionist regime assassinated him,” he said, adding, “However, this assassination will not deter the Islamic Republic of Iran from pursuing its goal of ensuring maximum security in our country and in the region; rather, it will strengthen our resolve.”

In a statement on Thursday, Hamas vehemently denounced Israel’s assassination of General Mousavi.

The group said that “the assassination of General Razi Mousavi by the Zionist enemy in Syria is a cowardly crime and aggression, as well as a violation of the sovereignty of the Arab country.”

“We offer our condolences to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and emphasize that the enemy’s crimes inside and outside Palestine will not succeed in breaking the will of our people and nation and suppressing our resistance,” it added.

According to an IRGC statement issued on Monday, Gen. Mousavi was assassinated in an Israeli “missile attack.”

The same day, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi sent a message saying that Israel “will certainly pay for this crime.”

Islamic Jihad, another Gaza-based resistance group, vowed that Israel could expect a strong retaliation to its “cowardly” assassination of Gen. Mousavi.

Islamic Jihad maintained in a statement that the general had played a critical role in helping regional resistance groups as well as the Palestinian nation, resistance, and cause.

“The occupying regime’s dirty assassination operation proves once again that this criminal regime contaminates the entire region and its only job is to shed blood and spread murder and crimes,” it added.

Based on the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Mousavi was assassinated with “direct coordination and participation of the U.S. and the West.”

“This crime will have no result other than escalating attacks by the resistance against the Zionist regime and its mercenaries in the region,” it said in a statement.

It went on to add, “We will never allow the occupying, criminal and cowardly enemy to feel safe and stable in the region. It must always live in terror and panic and await the next response.”

Speaking on Wednesday, Major General Hossein Salami, the commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), called General Mousavi “a unique and reliable” person who had permanently supported the entire resistance front. 

General Salami highlighted martyr Mousavi’s influence on the governments and armies of the host countries.   

“Martyr Mousavi is a brave and unknown commander, but famous and shining in the sky. And he had amazing effects during more than 3 decades and almost 37 years of emigration in Syria and Lebanon,” the general added.

He added, “I offer my congratulations and condolences on the martyrdom of the loyal comrade of Hajj Qassem Soleimani.”

As per General Salami, the enemy has used all its talent and resources to destroy the face and image of Iranian society.