TEHRAN, Jan 18 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that, the U.S. assassination of Iran’s Quds commander, Qassem Soleimani, was a “cowardice act” which hurt its superpower prestige.
During his Friday prayers sermon, Khamenei said, the Americans could not face Soleimani in the battlefield and hit him “furtively.”
In revenge, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)’s missiles shower on U.S. bases in Iraq was also a military “strike” on the U.S. as the superpower, he said.
Besides, the huge turnout of Iranians and regional people in Soleimani’s funeral ceremony was a “disgrace” for the United States, Khamenei said.
“Iranians as well as people of regional countries praised Soleimani and set ablaze the U.S. and Israeli flags.”
On the funeral ceremony of Soleimani, millions of Iranians displayed their “allegiance” once again, to the Islamic republic, he added.
The Iranian leader noted that “Soleimani was an anti-terror commander, who is acknowledged by the people of many countries.”
Khamenei also slammed the recent move by Britain, France and Germany (E3) to trigger dispute resolution mechanism, in the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
The Iranian authorities should not have trusted these European countries, in the nuclear talks, as “their negotiations are seasoned with deception.”
Speaking of the recent Ukrainian passenger plane crash, Khamenei called on Iran’s authorities to investigate “the painful crash,” adding, “it is necessary to seriously prevent the repetition of such disastrous incidents,” while condoling the families of the victims.
The Iranian leader also said, the “Iranian enemies” used the passenger plane crash to “tempt and provoke” anti-government sentiments and to undermine the assassination of the Iranian senior commander.
On Jan 8, a Ukrainian Boeing 737-800 passenger plane crashed near Tehran and all 176 people on-board were killed. The incident coincided with Iran’s missile attack on the U.S. military base in Iraq.
Later, Iran’s armed forces confirmed that an “unintentional” launch of a military missile by the country shot down the Ukrainian airliner.– NNN-IRNA
