January 3, 2020
Introduction
Qassem Soleimani the notorious commander of the terrorist Quds Force was killed on January 2 by a US military strike in Iraq. Soleimani was hater by the Iranian people for crimes committed against Iranian people and outside Iran. He was accompanied by Abu Mehdi Muhandes, the Deputy Commander of the Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Force, a suppressive and terrorist entity under direct control of the clerical regime in Iran. According to news a senior member of the Lebanon’s Hezobollah was also killed during this operation. Soleimani’s death was welcomed by Iraqi protesters who have been calling for his expulsion from Iraq for some time.
Statement by Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
Maryam Rajavi: Elimination of Qassem Soleimani and Head of Iran’s Suppressive Bassij is Irreparable Blow to Mullahs’ Regime
TIME TO EVICT IRGC FROM THE REGION
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), described the elimination of Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mehdi Muhandes, the head of Iraq’s suppressive Bassij force, as an irreparable blow to the clerical regime. Mrs. Rajavi emphasized that the time had come to evict the mullahs from the region, especially from Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, and expel the IRGC from these countries. In this way, Iraq, which had been delivered by the United States to the clerical regime on a silver platter, will be liberated from the yoke of the religious fascism ruling Iran.
Qassem Soleimani was one of the most vicious criminals in Iran’s history. He was personally involved in the massacre of hundreds of thousands of people in the region and in driving millions of others from their homes. He was also the mastermind of the massacre of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) in Camp Ashraf in Iraq, and of many other terrorist operations against the Iranian Resistance in that country, in Iran, and in other countries. With his elimination, the process of overthrowing the mullahs will be greatly expedited.
Moreover, with the death of the criminal Abu Mehdi Muhandes, the head of Iranian regime’s proxy Bassij force in Iraq and a notorious murderer, whose crimes had been exposed by the Iranian Resistance since two decades ago, the time has come for the victory of the Iraqi people’s uprising and the liberation of Iraq from the Iranian regime’s occupation.
Mrs. Rajavi added: While the prospects for the ruling theocracy’s overthrow is within reach, it is time for the regime’s armed forces to refrain from firing on the Iranian people, lay down their weapons and surrender. The armed forces’ patriotic personnel must join the people of Iran.
Recalling the martyrdom of at least 1,500 children of the Iranian people and endless arrests during the November 2019 uprising, Mrs. Rajavi underscored: The international community, especially the European Union, must end the policy of appeasement and recognize the right of the Iranian people to resist and rise for freedom to replace popular sovereignty in place of the mullahs’ rule.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
Who was Qassem Soleimani?
Since 1998 he was the commander of the terrorist Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Quds Force is the extraterritorial force of the IRGC.
Ghasem Soleimani, usually referred to as Haj Ghasem, by the Iranian media — was born on March 11, 1957 in a village near the town of Baft in the southeastern province of Kerman. He did not even finish his elementary education. He worked as construction laborer while he was very young.
He has no military education. He rose to the top of the IRGC command because of his ruthlessness.
H has been responsible for the death of thousands of people, not only Iranians but also people in the Middle East as well as nationals of other countries including the US.
He was notorious and as such a hated figure in Iran. During the recent uprising in Iran in November 2019, his posters in different cities were burnt by protesters.
Qassem Soleimani was responsible for attacks against members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Iraq (2009 to 2016) by the regime’s proxies and forces loyal to Nouri Maliki, then Prime Minister of Iraq.
Soleimani was directly responsible for the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Syrian people by Bashar Assad in Syria.
Abu Mehdi Muhandes, the Deputy Commander of Popular Mobilization Force in Iraq was also killed. He was a notorious terrorist. MEK exposed his direct involvement in terrorist activities some twenty years ago. He is on record saying, “I am proud to be a soldier of Qassem Soleimani.”
Javad Zarif: Soleimani’s close friend
Javad Zarif a close friend of Qassem Soleimani said “The US’s act of international terrorism, targeting & assassinating General Soleimani- the most effective force fighting Daesh Al Qaeda et al- is extremely dangerous & a foolish escalation. The US bears responsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism.”
While Soleimani was hated by the Iranian people, he was supported by all factions within the regime, including Javad Zarif, the regime’s foreign minister. On several occasions Zarif had praised Soleimani.
Zarif once said “Commander Soleimani and I never felt we have any differences. We have been working together closely for over 20 years…During the U.S. attack on Iraq, as Iran’s representative in New York, I … had the greatest coordination with commander Soleimani. Subsequently, when I became minister, the two of us decided to make sure we meet at least once a week when we were both in Tehran to review the latest developments and undertake the necessary coordination.” (state-run daily Entekhab on September 1, 2019)
On November 5, 2018, Zarif had also said, “We are not a system that operates on its own… How can we do anything in this country without reporting it? It is not as though we have sought to do anything contrary to the wishes of His Eminence the Leader.”
Zarif also congratulated Soleimani over receiving a special military order.
