Iran Condemns US Threat to Kill New IRGC Quds Force Chief as ‘Terrorism’
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi deplored a recent threat made by the US special representative for Iran, Brian Hook, to assassinate the new commander of the IRGC Quds Force as “an official publicizing of state terrorism” of the US government.
“The State Department official’s words are an official publicizing and blatant unveiling of targeted and state terrorism by the United States,” Mousavi said on Thursday night.
“Now, after the Zionist regime (of Israel), the US is the second regime that officially announces it has employed the resources of its government and armed forces for acts of terrorism and that it will continue to do so in the future,” he added.
The spokesman further deplored Washington’s move to resort to acts of terrorism as a clear sign of weakness, desperation, and confusion of the US regime.
Brian Hook said Thursday the new commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force General Esmail Qa’ani could face the fate of his predecessor, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated by the US on January 3.
Hook made the threat in an interview with the Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al-Awsat on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.
General Soleimani, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was the deputy head of Iraq’s Hashd al-Sha'abi (PMU), and a number of their entourage were killed in a strike by American drones near Baghdad International Airport on Friday, January 3.
The White House and the Pentagon claimed responsibility for the assassination of General Soleimani in Iraq, saying the attack was carried out at the direction of US President Donald Trump.
In the early hours of Wednesday, January 8, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) targeted the US airbase of Ain al-Assad in retaliation for the US move.
