The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations on Friday described the killing of one of his country’s top generals as an act of war.
The death of Quds Force commander Major General Qassem Soleimani in a Baghdad drone strike was the most dramatic escalation yet in spiraling tensions between Iran and the United States, despite President Donald Trump’s insistence he did not want war.
But, speaking to CNN late Friday night, Iranian ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi said: “In fact [it] was an act of war on the part of the United States and against [the] Iranian people.”
“Last night [the US] started a military war by assassinating by an act of terror against one of our top generals. So what else can be expected of Iran to do? We cannot just remain silent. We have to act and we will act,” he said.
“We can’t just close our eyes to what happened last night. Definitely there will be revenge, a harsh revenge.”
“The response for a military action is a military action. By whom, by when, where? That is for the future to witness,” he ended the interview by stating.
The remarks follow Trump, speaking on Friday night to Evangelical supporters in Miami, saying that Soleimani was planning “a very major attack” and that he had been preparing multiple “attacks against Americans.”
Meanwhile, the leader of Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah’s political bloc in Lebanon’s parliament said Saturday that Soleimani’s killing would be met with a decisive response by the “axis of resistance,” Reuters reported, citing the country’s al-Mayadeen TV.
In a call with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, Wang said “the dangerous US military operation violates the basic norms of international relations and will aggravate regional tensions and turbulence,” according to a statement by the Chinese foreign ministry.
“China opposes the use of force in international relations. There is no way out for military means, nor for extreme pressure,” Wang said.
China, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, is a key partner of Tehran and major buyer of Iranian oil.
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