Russia Condemns US Threat to Kill New Comdr. of Iran’s IRGC Quds Force
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Russia decried a recent threat by the US to assassinate Brigadier General Esmail Qa’ani, the new commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, describing such remarks as “unacceptable.”
“I state once again that such statements are unacceptable for us. Such remarks have been made beyond rights and law, and representatives of world states are not entitled to utter them,” Russia’s Sputnik quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying at a news briefing in the capital Moscow on Thursday.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi also deplored the threat 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 spokesman further deplored Washington’s move to resort to acts of terrorism as a clear sign of weakness, desperation, and confusion of the American 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 January 8, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) targeted the US airbase of Ain al-Assad in retaliation for the US move.