People in different parts of Iran on Tuesday commemorated the third anniversary of the martyrdom of General Qasem Soleimani, who was assassinated in a US strike in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
A national ceremony was held on Tuesday at the Grand Musalla of Tehran, attended by senior Iranian officials and foreign guests.
President Ebrahim Raisi, who was the main speaker at the event, said commemoration of General Soleimani is a tribute to all goodness and an expression of hatred for oppression and arrogance.
“The message of this event to all free men and women is that one should mount resistance against oppression and block the way of oppressors and arrogant powers,” he said, stressing that Iran’s revenge for General Soleimani is certain.
General Soleimani’s daughter and several commanders of the resistance front also addressed the ceremony which was broadcast live on state television.
People in the city of Kerman, the hometown of General Soleimani, also attended rallies and commemorative ceremonies to pay tribute to the popular figure.
Similar ceremonies were also held in other cities, including Esfahan, Yazd, Birjand, Rasht, Shahr-e Kord and Arak.
General Soleimani, the former commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, was assassinated along with his Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in a US drone strike ordered by ex-president Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.
He was a key leader of a fight against the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group.
The US assassination drew a wave of condemnation from across the world and triggered huge protests in the region, with Iraqi lawmakers approving a bill days after the US attack calling for expulsion of all US-led foreign military forces in Iraq.
On January 8, 2020, the IRGC targeted the US-run Ain al-Asad base in Iraq’s western province of Anbar with a wave of missile attacks in retaliation, which caused concussions in more than 100 US soldiers.
International Responsibility
Iran’s Foreign Ministry described the US criminal act of assassinating General Soleimani as yet another “glaring example of organized terrorist act.”
In a statement on Monday, it added that based on legal and international regulations, the US establishment bears “definite international responsibility” for this crime, including all the agents, instigators, perpetrators, aiders and abettors of this terrorist crime.
“In this regard, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in conjunction with the Judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran and other agencies, has adopted, from the very outset, a number of measures premised upon the legal principle of ‘combating impunity of crimes’ in order to hold the above-mentioned to account and bring them to justice,” the statement added.
Iran’s top human rights official also said 94 Americans are accused in the case of Soleimani’s assassination.
Kazem Gharibabadi, head of Iran’s Human Rights Headquarters and Deputy Chief of the Judiciary, added that former US president Donald Trump, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, and former commander of the United States Central Command General Kenneth F. McKenzie are the main culprits in this case.
Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, who heads the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s Special Committee for legal and international follow-up of the assassination, said, “We will sue any country or government that has been involved in the case,” if we obtain enough documents.
In addition to people from some European nations, some individuals from Iraq as well as a number of neighboring countries also helped the US to carry out the assassination as the operation was “very complicated”, according to the official.
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