IRGC advisor’s assassination exposes Israel’s ‘frustration’ against resistance: Iran Army chief
The chief commander of the Iranian Army has condemned Israel’s assassination of a senior military advisor of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in Syria as another sign of the occupying regime’s “frustration” against the resistance.
In a message issued late on Monday, Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi extended his congratulations and condolences to the family of Seyyed Razi Mousavi, as well as resistance fighters and the IRGC, on the Iranian commander’s martyrdom in an Israeli airstrike in a Damascus neighborhood.
“Following the defeats of the usurping regime in the face of the people in Gaza and the resistance front, the impotence and frustration of the child-killing Zionist regime were exposed once again by another crime and the martyrdom of a sincere fighter,” he wrote.
The Army chief also described Mousavi as one of the senior IRGC military advisers in Syria and a comrade of top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.
General Soleimani was assassinated in a US drone strike near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020. He was highly revered because of his key role in fighting the US-created and Israeli-supported Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.
The Iranian president says the Israeli regime will definitely pay the price for the killing of a senior IRGC commander in Syria.
Israel taking ‘crazy measures’ to make up for defeats: Envoy
Speaking to the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN), Iranian Ambassador to Damascus Hossein Akbari denounced Mousavi’s murder as “a cowardly terrorist act by the Zionist regime” in violation of international conventions.
The IRGC advisor was at the Iranian embassy at 2 p.m. local time (1100 GMT) and he was martyred at his house after returning from work at 4:10 p.m. (1310 GMT) by three missiles.
The “heartless and passive” Israeli crime is actually “a reaction to the situation,” he added.
“Perhaps, it can be said that the Zionist regime is taking crazy measures today to make up for some of its failures regarding both domestic problems and conditions in Gaza, where it has practically achieved none of its objectives after 80 days [of war].”
The envoy also emphasized that the victim country reserves the right to respond in kind and that the Zionist regime will naturally receive a response to its crime in due time and circumstances.
Mousavi was martyred while serving as part of Iran’s military advisory mission in Syria.
The mission was the first to rush to Syria’s assistance in 2014, when the Arab country found itself in the grip of the Daesh terror outfit.
Led by General Soleimani, the mission played an instrumental role in Damascus’ successful counterterrorism push that ultimately defeated Daesh in late 2017.