TEHRAN -- President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian has praised top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani as the perfect epitome of unity and convergence, saying he bore no grudge against anyone and never made any divisive or factional comments.
Pezeshkian made the remarks as he met here with the family of the former chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.
“The path of Martyr Hajj Qassem Soleimani was the path of unity and convergence. Neither did he engage in a verbal dispute with anyone nor sought to exclude anyone. There was no tinge of division in any of his comments,” he said.
Pezeshkian further urged authorities to “resolve the problems the country is struggling with through unison as well as the path and ideals of Martyr Soleimani.”
Pezeshkian said the late commander devoted his whole life to serving the Iranian nation, was a national figure and a charismatic personality for the Muslim world, held trans-factional viewpoints, and did not classify people in a specific group or spectrum.
General Soleimani, the president-elect said, was an excellent model of endeavor and hard work who never sought to take up a position.
He hoped that his administration would be able to honestly serve Iranians and pay glowing tribute to martyrs through convincing performance.
For their part, General Soleimani’s family called on the incoming administration to pay meticulous attention to the Axis of Resistance and faithfully follow the honorable path of Gen. Soleimani, describing such requests as public demands.
They also urged the Iranian president-elect to foster unity and heal divisions, stressing that General Soleimani always espoused such ideals.
General Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), and their companions were assassinated in a U.S. drone strike authorized by then-president Donald Trump near Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020.
Both commanders were highly revered across the Middle East because of their key role in fighting the Daesh terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.
In less than a week after the attack, Iraqi lawmakers approved a bill that required the government to expel all U.S.-led foreign forces from the country.
The IRGC also targeted the U.S.-run Ain al-Asad base in Iraq’s western province of Anbar with a wave of missile attacks in retaliation for the assassination of General Soleimani.