In a meeting with Iraq’s Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, held in Tehran on Sunday, Shamkhani said Iran expects the Baghdad government to seriously pursue the cowardly move through international organizations.
Denouncing the American assassination of Lt. General Soleimani and Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis as a brazen example of state-sponsored terrorism, Shamkhani said the least punishment for such a grave crime is that those behind the plot must immediately get out of the region, specifically out of Iraq.
For his part, Hussein praised Iran for supporting the Iraqi government and nation in the fight against Takfiri terrorism, stressing that no foreign party can undermine the close relations between the two neighbors.
In July, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei warned the United States that Iran will definitely reciprocate the assassination of Lt. General Soleimani.
In a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi in Tehran, Ayatollah Khamenei underlined that the Islamic Republic of Iran will never forget the American assassination of the top commander in Iraq and “it will definitely deal the reciprocal blow to Americans.”
On January 3, a US 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.
