Iranian Speaker's Aide:

Tomorrow Too Late for US Withdrawal from Region

TEHRAN (defapress)- Iranian Parliament Speaker's Special Aide for International Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian described the US assassination of former IRGC Quds Force Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani as a big mistake, saying that the American forces should leave the region now.

News ID: 82298

Date: 17 October 2020 - 14:47

The Americans must leave the region and if they do not end their presence today, tomorrow will be late and they will sustain serious damage in the region," Amir Abdollahian said, addressing the Fifth International Forum on Combatants Out of Homeland late on Friday.

Elsewhere, he said that one of the characteristics of today's world is that the US is no longer an empire to create world order because it is facing many problems at home and abroad and is collapsing to zero.

Amir Abdollahian added that the second hallmark is that the actors in the world today are no longer the former Soviet Union and the US, rather; the actors in today's international arena are no longer just big powers, but they are numerous and diverse.

"Today, Lebanese Hezbollah has the most influential role in the region in regulating political, international, regional and global arrangements, and Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in Palestine also play the most influential role in upsetting the Zionist equations for dominance in the region," he said.

Noting that the Palestinian resistance was able to play a major role in undermining the aspirations of the Zionists in the world and the West Asia region, Amir Abdollahian said, "Today in Yemen we see that with more than 5 years of resistance by men, women and resolved youth, they are looking for an honorable escape from the area."

Today, the US and Saudi Arabia are not the real actors in global developments, but the actors are who change the equation, he said.

Lieutenant General Soleimani was assassinated in a US drone strike on Baghdad International Airport in Iraq on January 3.

The airstrike also martyred Deputy Commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The two were martyred in an American airstrike that targeted their vehicle on the road to the airport.

Five Iranian and five Iraqi military men were martyred by the missiles fired by the US drone at Baghdad International Airport.

On January 8, the IRGC Aerospace Force started heavy ballistic missile attacks on US Ein Al-Assad airbase in Southwestern Iraq near the border with Syria and a US operated airbase in Erbil in retaliation for the US assassination of General Soleimani.

Ein Al-Assad is an airbase with a 4km runway at 188m altitude from sea levels, which is the main and the largest US airbase in Iraq. Early reports said the radar systems and missile defense shields in Ein Al-Assad failed to operate and intercept the Iranian missiles. Unofficial reports said the US army's central radar systems at Ein Al-Assad had been jammed by electronic warfare.

The second IRGC reprisal attack targeted a US military base near Erbil airport in Iraqi Kurdistan Region in the second leg of "Martyr Soleimani" reprisal operation.

Iraq said the attacks had not taken any toll from its army men stationed at these two bases. The US army had blocked entrance into Ein Al-Assad to everyone, including the Iraqi army.

It was the first direct attack on the US army ever since world war two.

The IRGC officials said none of the missiles had been intercepted.

Meantime, Iran announced in late June that it had issued arrest warrants for 36 officials of the US and other countries who have been involved in the assassination of the martyred General Soleimani.

"36 individuals who have been involved or ordered the assassination of Hajj Qassem, including the political and military officials of the US and other governments, have been identified and arrest warrants have been issued for them by the judiciary officials and red alerts have also been issued for them via the Interpol," Prosecutor-General of Tehran Ali Alqasi Mehr said.

He said that the prosecuted individuals are accused of murder and terrorist action, adding that US President Donald Trump stands at the top of the list and will be prosecuted as soon as he stands down presidency after his term ends.

message end/