Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that Iran will for sure take revenge against those who assassinated Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani earlier this year.
“Attendance of millions of people in Martyr Soleimani’s funeral was the first tough slap on the face of the American [rulers], but the tougher slap will be a dominance of soft [power] over the fake grandeur of the arrogant, as well as America’s expulsion from the region,” the Leader remarked.
Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks in a meeting with General Soleimani’s family and members of the headquarters responsible for commemorating the first anniversary of the martyred commander.
“However, revenge is due for the perpetrators and murderers of General Soleimani, and this revenge will certainly take place, whenever possible,” Ayatollah Khamenei added.
On January 3, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered drone strikes that martyred General Soleimani, chief of the IRGC Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).
In the early hours of January 8, the IRGC attacked Ain al-Assad airbase in western Iraq, where U.S. forces were stationed, as part of its promised “tough revenge” for the U.S. terror attack.
Iran has vowed to target whoever had a role in the cowardly assassination of General Soleimani. “This is a serious message,” IRGC Chief Major General Hossein Salami said back in September.
“These threats are serious and we’re not engaging in a war of words,” Salami said, adding, “Rather, we’ll leave everything to the field of action.”
In his Wednesday remarks, the Leader said “courage” and “resistance” were two outstanding characteristics of General Soleimani.
He also lauded Soleimani for his wisdom, ingenuity, sacrifice, and altruism.
‘Do not trust the enemy’
Elsewhere in his remarks, Ayatollah Khamenei urged the Iranian authorities to harden Iran’s power in all fields to frustrate the enemies, saying, “My definite advice is ‘do not trust the enemy’.”
He said the government should primarily focus on neutralizing the sanctions instead of lifting them.
“Of course, I don’t say do not go after the lifting of sanctions, because if the sanctions can be lifted, we should not hesitate even for an hour,” the Leader remarked.
He explained that the efforts to lift the sanctions have failed because the U.S. has imposed more sanctions on the Islamic Republic since four years ago, when Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, with six major world powers, including the United States.
“If the sanctions can be lifted in the right, wise, Iranian-Islamic and dignified way, it must be done, but the main focus should be on neutralizing the sanctions, regarding which the initiative is in your hands,” he said, addressing the country’s officials.
The Leader also said there’s no different between the U.S. administrations when it comes to their enmity toward Iran.
“You saw what Trump’s America and Obama’s America did to you,” he said.
“The enmities are not just restricted to Trump’s America that they will end with his departure. Obama’s America also did bad things to you and the Iranian nation,” Ayatollah Khamenei added.
In similar remarks published earlier, General Soleimani’s daughter said the victory of Joe Biden against the incumbent-President Trump in the November 3 presidential election will not change Washington’s Iran policy
“There’s no difference between Biden and Trump, they are the same guy. They are following the same policy, there’s no difference between them. Trump ordered the killing of my father, but Biden supported that, so there’s no difference,” Zeinab Soleimani told Russia Today in an interview that was to be aired on Wednesday.
U.S. President-elect Biden has signaled that he will re-enter the United States into the JCPOA, which was abandoned by Trump in 2018 in pursuit of a tough economic confrontation with the Islamic republic.
Soleimani said Biden’s background leaves a lot of room for doubt, because it was Barack Obama’s administration that facilitated the creation of the Daesh (ISIS) terrorist group in West Asia.
Moreover, U.S. policy towards Iran has remained pretty much the same for decades already, she argued, and the change of the figurehead in the White House does not really matter.
She added, “The problem we have with America is their policy, this will not change. They are the same people, with the same mind, the same way. And each one is worse than the other one.”
