Summary
· Tehran has repeatedly vowed to avenge the killing of Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' foreign operations, in a US drone strike on Baghdad airport in January 2020
Tehran. An Iranian general warned his country is still seeking
to kill former US president Donald Trump and his secretary of state Mike Pompeo
in revenge for assassinating top commander Qasem Soleimani.
Tehran has repeatedly vowed to
avenge the killing of Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps' foreign operations, in a US drone strike on Baghdad airport in January
2020.
"We hope we can kill Trump,
Pompeo, (former US general Kenneth) McKenzie and the military commanders who
gave the order" to kill Soleimani, General Amirali Hajizadeh, the Guards'
aerospace unit commander, said on television late Friday.
Trump had ordered the strike in
response to a number of attacks on US interests in Iraq that his administration
blamed on Iran.
Days later, Iran retaliated by
firing missiles at a US airbase in Iraq that housed US troops. None were
killed, but Washington said dozens suffered traumatic brain damage.
The United States and its allies
have repeatedly expressed concerns about Iran's ballistic missile programme as
well as its "destabilising" role in the Middle East.
In his televised remarks, Hajizadeh
said Iran was "now able to hit American ships at a distance of 2,000
kilometres (1,243 miles)".
"We have set this limit of
2,000 kilometres out of respect for the Europeans and we hope that the
Europeans show themselves worthy of this respect," the Iranian general
said.
On Saturday, Iranian state
television aired video of what it said was a newly unveiled "Paveh cruise
missile with a range of 1,650 kilometres (1,025 miles)" developed by the
Guards.
The official broadcaster reported on
Friday that Iran was likely to provide Syria with the 15-Khordad surface-to-air
missile system to "reinforce" its defensive capabilities.
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