TEHRAN -- Iran will not abandon plans to avenge the 2020 U.S. assassination of Quds Force Commander General Qassem Soleimani, despite “regular offers” from Washington to remove sanctions and provide other concessions in return, a top Iranian official said on Thursday.
Over the last year, Iran and the remaining signatories of a 2015 nuclear deal have engaged in talks in Vienna to revive it that then-President Donald Trump reneged on in 2018.
“The enemy keeps sending messages that if we give up on avenging Gen. Soleimani, they will give us some concessions or lift some sanctions,” IRGC’s Navy Commander General Alireza Tangsiri said.
“This is pure fantasy. The Supreme Leader has emphasized the need for revenge and the IRGC’s top commander has said that revenge is inevitable and that we will choose the time and place for it,” he added.
Gen. Tangsiri appeared to be alluding to Tehran’s demand that Washington drop the IRGC from its FTO list.
He said “the time and place” for the revenge will be determined by Iran.
Gen. Soleimani, who headed the IRGC’s Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), were assassinated along with their associates in a U.S. drone strike at Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020.
Less than a week later, IRGC fired a volley of missiles at the U.S.-run Ain al-Assad airbase in Iraq’s western province of Anbar, which resulted in severe brain injuries to at least 110 American forces stationed there.
Tangsiri said the enemy thought that they had succeeded in eliminating Gen. Soleimani, “but you can see how Haj Qassem has gained popularity all over the world”.