TEHRAN – Iran is pressing ahead with judicial actions to pursue the case of the American assassination of top Iranian commander Lt. General Qassem Soleimani, the spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of Iran said.
In comments at a weekly press conference on Monday, Nasser Kana’ani denounced the U.S. government as the prime culprit in the assassination of Lt. General Soleimani and Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
The Americans must be held accountable for the crime, he stated.
The spokesman emphasized that Iran is pressing on with legal procedures, in cooperation and interaction with the government of Iraq, to pursue the case.
Pointing to multiple meetings with the Iraqi officials about the assassination case, Kana’ani said the prolongation of the process does not mean a halt to or delay in pursuing the case.
On January 3, 2020, a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad International Airport assassinated General Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps. The attack -- that also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) anti-terror group, along with several others -- came while General Soleimani was on an official visit to the Iraqi capital.
In a meeting with the former prime minister of Iraq in July 2020, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei underlined that Iran will never forget the American assassination of the top commander in Iraq and “will definitely deal the reciprocal blow to Americans.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran has set up a headquarters to pursue legal actions against the U.S. crime.