Lauren Moye, FISM News
On the second anniversary of the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, Iran threatened to take “revenge.” Now, a top general for the country has warned this revenge will come from “within” American homes.
On Jan. 3, 2020, the U.S. performed a drone strike in Iraq that resulted in the death of Soleimani, an Iranian hero who specialized in intelligence and morally questionable warfare. The Tehran now hail him as a martyr. On Monday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi referred to taking a “martyr’s revenge” if demands are not met for former-President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to be tried “in a fair court” for Soleimani’s assassination.
Brigadier-General Esmail Ghaani added to this threat during a speech celebrating Soleimani. Ghaani, who serves as Soleimani’s replacement as the head of the elite Quds force, spoke about how the “ground for the hard revenge” will come from “within” the homes of Americans.
The words imply a hidden prevalent threat to American lives. The Tasnim news reported Ghaani as saying, “We do not need to be present as supervisors everywhere, wherever is necessary we take revenge against Americans by the help of people on their side and within their own homes without our presence.”
Ghaani echoed the Iranian president’s demand for justice to be carried out against Trump, adding that “the children of the Resistance Front” were prepared to take things into their own hands.
“This revenge has begun,” Ghaani also said. “Americans will be uprooted from the region.”
Iran on Saturday targeted 51 Americans to levy sanctions against for “their role in the terrorist crime by the United States against the martyred General Qassem Soleimani and his companions and the promotion of terrorism and violations of fundamental human rights,” according to a statement carried by local media.
This list of Americans included U.S. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien, and many connected to the U.S. military. However, considering a glaring lack of assets located in Iran that would be available to seize, the additions to the sanctions list are considered merely symbolic. Iran similarly sanctioned Trump and other senior officials last year.
The move represents another strategic gesture by Iran to grab headlines and potentially gain more public support amid nuclear negotiations with the U.S., which are ongoing in Vienna this week.
FISM similarly reported that the cries for Trump to face Islamic justice can be “viewed as little more than empty rhetoric” in an attempt to “chip away at public opinion.” Tehran hopes to get U.S. sanctions lifted as part of their negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement.