Iran:

World Safer without Criminal US Rulers

The Iranian embassy in Moscow strongly condemned the terror attack on IRGC Qods Force Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani which was directly ordered by US President Donald Trump, stressing that the world will be a safer and more secure place without the United States' criminal rulers.

News ID: 448385

Date: 05 January 2020 - 12:54

RNA - "The Islamic Republic of Iran has always called for a pullout of the foreign forces, specially the aggressor US forces, from the Middle-East region and considers sincere and all-out cooperation among the regional states and those who oppose the US unilateral acts, which are against the international laws, as the only way to establish peace, stability and tranquility in the region," a statement by the embassy said on Saturday.

The Islamic Republic of Iran "believes that the world will certainly be a more stable, more peaceful and more secure place without the corrupt and criminal US rulers whose hands are stained with the blood of thousands of innocent people across the world and they are not committed to any undertakings", it added.

The statement said that Iran reserves the right for responding to the terrorist attack and will use all its legal and judicial capacities to establish peace and stability in the region and fight against terrorism, specially the state terrorism of the US and the Zionist regime.

Lieutenant General Soleimani was martyred in a targeted assassination attack by the US drones at Baghdad International Airport early on Friday morning.

General Qassem Soleimani has been martyred by the US aircraft after lifetime efforts, the IRGC said in a statement early Friday morning.

The airstrike also martyred Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), or Hashad al-Shaabi. The PMF media arm said the two were martyred in an American airstrike that targeted their vehicle on the road to the airport.

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

The Pentagon confirmed the attack in a statement.

The attack came amid tensions that started by the US attack on PMF units that killed 28 Iraqi popular forces. A day later, Iraqi people attacked the US embassy in Baghdad. On Wednesday President Donald Trump ordered about 750 US soldiers deployed to the Middle East.

US officials earlier suggested they were to engage in further retaliatory attacks in Iraq.

The developments also represent a major downturn in Iraq-US relations that could further undermine US influence in the region and American troops in Iraq and weaken Washington’s hand in its pressure campaign against Iran.

US President Donald Trump was vacationing on his estate in Palm Beach, Florida, but sent out a tweet of an American flag.

The attack represents a dramatic escalation by the US toward Iran after months of tensions. The tensions take root in Trump’s decision in May 2018 to withdraw the US from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, struck under his predecessor.

847/940