Iran’s supreme leader has prayed over the remains of a top general killed in a US air strike in Baghdad, an attack that has drastically raised tensions between Tehran and Washington.
The targeted killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani already has seen his replacement vow to take revenge.
Additionally, Tehran has abandoned the remaining limits of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers in response to the slaying while in Iraq the parliament has called for the expulsion of all American troops from Iraqi soil.
The developments could bring Iran closer to building an atomic bomb, set off a proxy or military attack launched by Tehran against the US and enable the Islamic State group to stage a comeback in Iraq, making the Middle East a far more dangerous and unstable place.
Soleimani’s daughter Zeinab directly threatened an attack on the US military in the Mid East while speaking to a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Tehran that stretched as far as the eye could see.
“The families of the American soldiers in western Asia … will spend their days waiting for the death of their children,” she said to cheers.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself prayed over the caskets of Soleimani and others slain in the attack.
Soleimani’s successor Esmail Ghaani stood near Khamenei’s side, as did Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and other top leaders in the Islamic Republic.
While Iran recently faced nationwide protests over government-set petrol prices that reportedly killed over 300 people, Soleimani’s mass processionals has seen politicians and leaders across the Islamic Republic’s political spectrum take part, temporarily silencing that anger.
Ghaani made his own threat in an interview with Iranian state television aired on Monday. “God the almighty has promised to get his revenge, and God is the main avenger. Certainly actions will be taken,” he said.
Ghaani, a longtime Soleimani deputy, has now taken over as the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, an expeditionary arm of the paramilitary organization answerable only to Khamenei.
