Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei promised to avenge the blood of his most favored military commander, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US airstrike outside Baghdad’s international airport in January. Khamenei the revenge on those who ordered the assassination and executed it is “definite,” but he did not specify any timing.
The Soleimani killing, directly ordered by President Donald Trump, pushed Iran and the United States to the brink of war. Five days into the assassination, Iran targeted the Ain al-Asad airbase hosting US soldiers in neighboring Iraq with over a dozen missiles. The attack, which was reportedly launched with a prior notice, killed no one but did cause US troops to suffer traumatic brain injuries.
During his speech Dec. 16, Khamenei looked back at the strike as just a “slap,” noting that part of the real revenge for “the national hero” will be exacted with the ouster of US forces from the region. That goal, he argued, will be gained with regional “resistance,” a term Iran uses to describe a wide network of proxies it has been nurturing and funding across the Middle East to advance its agenda, including a struggle against the US military presence.
Iran’s regional activities in recent years has been at the heart of Western worries, repeatedly raised during talks that culminated in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Tehran, however, has persistently resisted negotiating the matter, claiming that such activities are conducted at the behest of sovereign governments.
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