Zarif:

Iran's Revenge Entails US Pullout from Region

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned of any US response to Tehran's reprisal for the assassination of IRGC Qods Force Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, and said US pullout from the region is the main revenge to be taken from Washington.

News ID: 448454

Date: 09 January 2020 - 15:05

RNA - "The Islamic Republic had to show a military reaction to the US government's measure and it did but this is not the end game. The end will be the withdrawal of the US which does not need military action and it is the result of the Americans' move and the result of support they showed in this arrogant and stupid move," Zarif told reporters in Tehran on Wednesday after a cabinet meeting.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has declared that if the US makes a mistake, it will definitely be given a response," he added.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran's military action was carried out, but as the Supreme Leader has said it was a slap in the face of the Americans, and the revenge will be the US pullout from the region," Zarif said, praising the IRGC's retaliatory missile attacks against the US bases.

He underlined that while public hatred for the US is on rise, "it is spending its last days in our region", adding that Washington has relied on wrong and dangerous consultations.

Early on Wednesday, the IRGC Aerospace Force launched 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 assassination of IRGC Qods Force Commander Lieutenant General Qassem 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 have 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.

Some 80 US army personnel have been killed and nearly 200 more wounded in the missile attacks.

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.

All flights have been cancelled at Erbil airport.

Iraq said the attacks have 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.

This is the first direct attack on the US army ever since world war two.

IRGC officials said none of the missiles had been intercepted.

Following the attack, the IRGC issued a statement immediately after the attacks, declaring that it has fired tens of ground-to-ground missiles at "the airbase occupied by the terrorist and aggressive army of the United States known as Ein Al-Assad" in reprisal for the martyrdom of IRGC Qods Force Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.

The IRGC warned the US to avoid retaliating the Wednesday attack or else "it will face a more painful and crushing response".

The IRGC Statement also warned "all the US allied states where the terrorist army has a base, any territory that becomes the origin of any hostile and aggressive action against the Islamic Republic of Iran in any way will be targeted".

"We believe that the Zionist regime by no means stands aside from the criminal US regime in these crimes."

The IRGC also called on the American nation to pressure the White House to pull their troops out of the region to avoid further damage and not allow the US rulers to endanger the lives of their military men through increasing hatred.

All Iranian underground missile towns are on alert.

The missile attack came hours before the body of General Soleimani was laid to rest.

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

The airstrike also martyred Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), or Hashad al-Shaabi. 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 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.

The targeted assassination 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.

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