Iran's IRGC mourns Qasem Soleimani's killing; mocks US by citing Afghanistan withdrawal

As the Iranians mark the second anniversary of the Trump administration-ordered drone strike assassination of revered Iranian commander of the Quds Force, General Qasem Soleimani on January 3, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Sunday insulted the United States armed forces, retorting that they have been forced to leave Afghanistan 'humiliated'.

This, they stressed, was one of the forms of restitution for Iran as it mourns the loss of a prominent IRGC commander and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei's top military advisor, who was both significant in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). 

"The first recompense that the Americans must pay for the assassination of Martyr Soleimani is to leave the region in humiliation," Revolutionary Guard spokesman Ramezan Sharif said at the commemorative event in the northwestern Iranian city of Urmia, according to Russia's state-affiliated news agency Sputnik.

"Just as the Americans left Afghanistan in humiliation, so too will they have to leave other countries of the region as well. This will be the first punishment that they have to suffer," the spokesman further stressed. 

US Army soldiers stands next to a guided-missile launcher, a few miles from the frontline, in the village of Abu Ghaddur, east of Tal Afar, Iraq. [Credit: AP]

Sharif was referring to the August 2021 exit of the US troops from Kabul and the ouster of the West-backed Ashraf Ghani government that fled in exile from Afghanistan after the Taliban's siege. United States military troops have also been pulling out the significant military hardware out of the Mideast, which includes Patriot missile systems being pulled out from Saudi Arabia.

Pentagon drawing down on US troops in the Middle East [Credit: Susannah George/AP Photo]

There has been a noticeable US troop reduction in countries like Iraq, and Pentagon this year announced that it will be withdrawing troops from Kuwait, Iraq, and Jordan that has caused an uproar that Washington is exiting Riyadh due to Tehran's aggressive foreign policy. The US and its NATO allies completely withdrew from Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of war.

Qasem 'promised to defeat US forces..' 

"Long before the complete defeat of Daesh and US allies in the region, Haj Qasem had promised to defeat them," Sharif reportedly said, praising Soleimani, whom he labelled 'a visionary' that fought terror groups Syria and Iraq.

"This was achieved thanks to his command and knowledge of the enemy front and the strength of the resistance front," the former stated, making reference to the 'Axis of Resistance' – the Anti-Western, Saudi, and Israel political and military coalition between Iran, the secular Syrian government of President Bashar Assad, Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, and the Baghdad-allied Shia Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq. 

In a rare show of emotion, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei openly wept as he led prayers at the coffin of Qasem Soleimani. [Credit: AP]

Sharif mocked America’s diminishing power in the Middle East, as he warned the Persian nations against relying on Washington. Meanwhile, Soleimani’s successor as commander of the elite Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, Brigadier General Esmail Qaani, hailed Soleimani at a separate ceremony, calling him a "professional who established a very good link between the battlefield and diplomacy and was one of the trailblazers and advocates of this logic". 

Qaani's primary mission is to fulfill Soleimani’s vision of Iran and expand country's ballistic missiles program and bolster Shiite militia groups in the Middle East.

Commander of the Quds Force, Soleimani worked in cooperation with the Iraqi and Syrian militaries, Kurdish militias to fight Daesh, and al-Qaeda, and the Taliban in Syria and Afghanistan. Trump administration ordered the elimination of the IRGC's top commander for what the former US president justified as a 'huge threat' to US security.

Trump argued that Soleimani was planning imminent attacks on regional US targets, particularly on US forces in Iraq.