General Soleimani Killed in Trump Era, Iran Demands Biden Accountability
PERMATA POSTS KIND, TEHRAN - The Iranian government holds that the current United States (US) government, namely the Joe Biden Administration, is also responsible for the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani.
Iran's respected military commander was killed by a missile by a US drone in Baghdad, Iraq, January 3, 2020.
Tehran continues to hold the Biden Administration accountable despite the assassination at the behest of the previous president, Donald Trump.
General Soleimani was the commander of the Quds Force, the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) force for operations abroad.
He was killed along with his Iraqi ally, Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, in a US drone strike in Baghdad ordered by Trump.
"The US government bears definitive international responsibility for this crime," Iran's Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on Twitter to mark the second anniversary of Soleimani's assassination.
"Undoubtedly, the criminal acts of the United States in the martyr general Soleimani are a clear manifestation of the organized and orchestrated 'terrorist attack' by the then US administration for which the White House is now responsible," the ministry continued, referring to President Joe's administration. Biden, as quoted by AFP, Saturday (1/1/2022).
Five days after Soleimani's assassination, Iran retaliated by firing missiles at the US air base in Ain al-Assad housing American troops in Iraq, and another near Erbil in northern Iraq.
No US soldiers were killed in the retaliatory strike but Washington says dozens of its soldiers suffered traumatic brain injuries from a hail of missiles.
Trump said at the time that the drone strike came in response to a wave of attacks against US interests in Iraq. Trump also warned at the time that Tehran would be held responsible if such attacks continued.
The Foreign Ministry statement comes as Iran prepares to launch a week-long activity to commemorate the killing of Soleimani.
Authorities said the main event of the commemoration would be held on Monday (3/1/2022), without elaborating.
They added that on January 7, an exhibition of "Iran's missile capabilities" would be held.
Iranian officials have repeatedly promised that Tehran will avenge General Soleimani's death.
On the first anniversary of his assassination then, judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi - who is now Iran's president - warned that even Trump was not "immune from justice" and that Soleimani's killers would not be safe anywhere in the world.
During Trump's time in the US, tensions between Washington and Tehran were at an all-time high.
In 2018, Trump abandoned the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and reimposed American sanctions on Tehran.
The two countries have also been on the verge of direct military confrontation on at least two occasions.