Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, prayed and wept Monday near the coffins of General Qassem Soleimani and others killed in the US attack on Baghdad on Friday during the funeral ceremonies in Tehran.
Khamenei, who had a close relationship with Soleimani, wept during traditional Muslim prayers for the dead.
Soleimani’s successor to Iran’s elite Al-Quds force, Esmail Ghaani, joined Ali Khamenei, as did Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and other leaders of the Islamic Republic during the funeral ceremonies.
Hundreds of thousands of people attending the funeral act also mourned the death of the Iranian general.
Qassem Soleimani’s daughter Zeinab directly threatened an attack on the US military in the Middle East while speaking to a crowd in Tehran.
“The families of US soldiers in West Asia … spend the day waiting for their children to die,” said Zeinab.
Iranian state television has spoken in a crowd of “millions”, although that number cannot be verified.
Palestinian militant Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is in Tehran and has also attended Soleimani’s funeral ceremonies.
Ismail Haniyeh, in a speech to the Iranians, described General Qassem Soleimani as “the martyr of Jerusalem “.
The Hamas official has promised that Palestinian militant groups – including his group, which controls the Gaza Strip – will follow Soleimani’s path “to confront the Zionist project and US influence.”
With images of their smiling hero in their hands, the Iranians gathered before 08.00 (04.30 in Lisbon) at the University of Tehran, where the supreme guide, the ayatollah Ali Khamenei presides over a prayer in honor of Iran’s most popular soldier.
The crowd, clustered near the university and for several kilometers along the avenues Enghelab (“revolution”) and Azadi (“freedom”), also carry red flags the color of the blood of the “martyrs”, or Iranian, but also Lebanese. or Iraqi. Slogans are heard on the streets: “Death to America”, “Death to Israel”.
In reference to General Soleimani and the other Iranians who died in the US attack, state television is broadcasting live footage from aerial views of the capital, while claiming, in title, “the unprecedented resurrection of the Iranian capital to receive Haj Qassem and the resistance martyrs. “
General Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s elite Al-Quds force, died on Friday in an air raid on his car near Baghdad International Airport, ordered by US President Donald Trump.
In the same attack also died the number two of the coalition of pro-Iranian paramilitary groups in Iraq, Abu Mehdi al-Muhandis, known as Popular Mobilization. [Hachd al-Chaabi], plus eight other people.
The attack came three days after an unprecedented two-day assault on the US embassy that only ended when Trump announced the deployment of another 750 soldiers to the Middle East.
NATO discusses crisis on Monday
Ambassadors from 29 NATO countries will meet extraordinarily on Monday to discuss the crisis between the United States and Iran, a spokesman for the organization told AFP news agency. “The Secretary-General [Jens Stoltenberg] decided to organize this meeting of NATO ambassadors after having discussed with the allies, “the spokesman told AFP.
Ambassadors from the 29 NATO countries meet regularly in Brussels several times a week to discuss current issues and issues of common interest.
On Saturday, NATO announced that it would suspend training operations in Iraq following the death of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani during a US attack on Baghdad in Iraq on Friday.
NATO’s mission to Iraq, which has a few hundred military personnel, has been training Iraqi forces since October 2018, at the request of the Iraqi government, to prevent the return of the Islamic State (IS).
General Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s elite Al-Quds force, died on Friday in an air raid on his car near Baghdad International Airport, ordered by US President Donald Trump.
In the same attack also died the number two of the coalition of pro-Iranian paramilitary groups in Iraq, Abu Mehdi al-Muhandis, known as Popular Mobilization. [Hachd al-Chaabi], plus eight other people.
Iran has vowed revenge and announced on Sunday that it will no longer respect the limits imposed by the 2015 nuclear treaty with the five countries sitting on the United Nations Security Council — Russia, France, the United Kingdom, China and the USA — Germany, and aimed at restricting Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons. The United States abandoned the agreement in May 2018.
In Iraq, parliament passed a resolution urging the government to tear up the 2016 agreement with the US in which Washington pledges to help fight the Islamic State terrorist group and justifies the presence of some 5,200 military personnel. Americans in Iraqi territory.
Merkel and Putin debate rising tension on Saturday
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit Russia next Saturday, at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to discuss tensions in the Middle East and compliance with the Minsk agreements, the Kremlin said Monday.
“During the talks there will be discussion of current international issues, including the situation in Syria, Libya and increased tensions in the Middle East following the US attack on Baghdad airport on 3 January.”, indicated the press office of the Russian presidency.
The Kremlin also reported that during the meeting between Merkel and Putin, compliance with the 2015 Minsk agreements aimed at ending the war in eastern Ukraine and those achieved under the so-called “Normandy format” (Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France) on December 9 in Paris.
The agreement signed in the French capital has committed Russian and Ukrainian leaders, in particular, to work towards a “full” and effective ceasefire by the end of the year and a full exchange of their prisoners.
Speakers also agreed to implement political and security conditions in four months to allow local elections in Dombass, but could not agree on control of the Russian-Ukrainian border.
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