Mourners surround a car carrying the coffin of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani, killed alongside Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a US air strike, during a funeral procession in Kadhimiya, a Shiite pilgrimage district of Baghdad, on January 4, 2020. – Thousands of Iraqis chanting “Death to America” joined the funeral procession Saturday for Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, both killed in a US air strike. The cortege set off around Kadhimiya, a Shiite pilgrimage district of Baghdad, before heading to the Green Zone government and diplomatic district where a state funeral was to be held attended by top dignitaries. In all, 10 people — five Iraqis and five Iranians — were killed in Friday morning’s US strike on their motorcade just outside Baghdad airport. (Photo by SABAH ARAR / AFP)
The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations described the killing of one of his country’s top generals as an act of war, US media reported late Friday.
The death of Quds Force commander Major General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad was the most dramatic escalation yet in spiraling tensions between Iran and the United States, despite President Donald Trump’s insistence he did not want war.
But, speaking to CNN late Friday night, Iranian ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi said: “In fact was an act of war on the part of the United States and against Iranian people.”
“Last night they (the US) started a military war by assassinating by an act of terror against one of our top generals. So what else can be expected of Iran to do? We cannot just remain silent. We have to act and we will act,” he said.
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“We can’t just close our eyes to what happened last night. Definitely there will be revenge, a harsh revenge.”
“The response for a military action is a military action. By whom, by when, where? that is for the future to witness,” he ended the interview by stating.
The remarks follow Trump, speaking on Friday night to Evangelical supporters in Miami, saying that Soleimani was planning “a very major attack” and that he had been preparing multiple “attacks against Americans”.
Soleimani — long seen as a deadly adversary by the US and its allies — was one of the most important power-brokers across the region, setting Iran’s political and military agenda in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.
[AFP]
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