Quds Force chief: ‘israel’ on decline; Gen. Soleimani ‘number one anti-terror figure’ in world

Brigadier General Esmail Qa’ani made the remarks in the 24th Supreme Assembly of Commanders of the IRGC in Tehran on Saturday.

“Today, the Axis of Resistance has the upper hand against the Zionist regime,” Qa’ani said, highlighting the decline of the Israeli regime in the region.

“Israel the usurper is in a difficult situation both from inside and outside. Recently, there have been 15 to 30 daily attacks by the resistance forces against the Zionist regime in the West Bank,” he added.

Qa’ani also stressed that the United States spent $7 trillion in Iraq but achieved “nothing except humiliation.”

The commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force praised General Soleimani’s sacrifices and his “exemplary” counter-terrorism efforts in the region.

“Martyr Soleimani was not a person but a school and a lightened path that the enemies could not stand,” Qa’ani said, adding, “[He] was an outstanding example of human behavior outside the borders, and his spiritual actions were widely manifested in the resistance front.”

The commander further argued that “Martyr Soleimani was the number one anti-terror figure across the region and around the world who was assassinated by the greatest terrorist administration and president in the world.”

The remarks came days after Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei praised the IRGC  as “the world’s biggest counter-terrorism organization” in the world.

“It is an efficient and independent organization capable of carrying out tasks that many of the world’s major militaries cannot accomplish,” Ayatollah Khamenei said at a meeting with the Supreme Assembly of commanders and officials of the IRGC in Tehran on Thursday.

He also warned of enemy plots to tarnish the image of the IRGC forces through “false news, rumors and all kinds of tricks and ploys.”

Elsewhere in his Saturday remarks, Qa’ani further said, “The enemy assassinated Martyr Soleimani but did not know that Martyr Soleimani was much more dangerous for them than General Soleimani.”

Lieutenant General Soleimani, the late commander of the Quds Force of IRGC, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), and their companions were assassinated in a US drone strike authorized by then-President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.

Both commanders were highly revered across the Middle East because of their key role in fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.