On Monday, the third anniversary of the assassination of Lieutenant General Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, along with his companion Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and several of their retinues, the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Islamabad strongly condemned the “hideous terrorist action tantamount to state terrorism.”
The “act of terrorism against an official and high-ranking military staff of the United Nations (UN) member state was an obvious breach of international law, Geneva Conventions, and military customs and regulations,” according to the Embassy’s official statement.
The press release continued by saying, “This action, being an act of crime and an act of aggression is considered to be a great threat to the peace and security of the world and the region.”
In addition, the press release stated that “the United States (US) enervated the axis to combat Takfiri groups and now the region is engaged in the negative consequences emerging from the lack of a proficient and steadfast commander” by assassinating “one of the greatest and veteran commanders to fight against terrorism and extremism.”
According to the press release, “The so-called preventive assassination was categorically intended to eliminate a competent and triumphant force, but soon it proved to be a miscalculation strategic illusion exercised by an awkward quasi-politician, prompted by associate elements and facilitated by hypocrites.”
The embassy also stated that state terrorism demonstrated the existence of double standards in the definition and application of the most obvious and fundamental principle of human rights and international law.
According to the press release, “Examples of this kind of double standard and hypocrisy by the US are galore in the contemporary history of the international community.”
“The people of the region are affected by the miscalculations, strategic errors, interventions, and opportunism by the exterior countries,” it continued.
Additionally, the embassy stated that the scourge of terrorism has never existed outside of Pakistan and Iran. It emphasized that “a lot of pure blood” has been shed on this path and that terrorism is the common affliction of the two Muslim nations.
The statement continued, “Iran is still resolute to hold the committers, supporters, and assistants of this brutal crime accountable and to prosecute them in a fair and equitable court of justice” three years after the unmanly assassination of Gen. Soleimani.
“This action is regarded as an international criminal act indictable in the international tribunals, International Criminal Court (ICC) being one, the scope of the mechanism of which the US escaped some two decades ago in order to evade accountability under such crimes and to provide impunity for the committers of the international crime as such,” read the statement, which also expressed further condemnation of the act.
The statement came to a close with the following statement: “However, the Islamic Republic of Iran will officially use its political, legal, and international capacities in order to take action and prosecute and indict the perpetrators of this hideous crime through recognized legal mechanisms.”
Soleimani’s killing
On January 3, 2020, the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force leader Soleimani was killed in Iraq by the United States. He had been accused of orchestrating attacks on US forces stationed in the region by Iranian-aligned militias by Washington.
The killing of Soleimani, the modeler of Iran’s Center Eastern military system, sent shock waves across the district and started fears of an immediate military showdown between many years old main foes Washington and Tehran.
Iran retaliated days after the US drone strike with a rocket attack on an Iraqi air base where US forces were stationed. On high alert, Iranian forces mistook a Ukrainian passenger airliner taking off from Tehran to shoot down.
