Arab League, Iranians vow to avenge Soleimani’s death as US threatens “to strike again more hard and fast”

The Arab league and the Iranians, at different fora, had since voiced that they would revenge the death of Commander Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian Head of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Iranian elite Quds Force), who was killed in the US air strike near Baghdad International Airport on Friday, alongside Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Deputy Commander of the Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF/Hashd al-Shaabi).

The leader of Hezbollah, Nasrallah Hazzan, in an address in Beirut Lebanon, said, the US airstrike “marks a new phase in the Middle East region,” and has charged and vowed to attack the American citizens and soldiers, their vessels and assets in the region, while the daughter of Soleimani echoed her belief in the leaders to avenge the death of her father.

Earlier, Donald Trump, the US President, had owned up that it was the American government that launched the attack targeting Qassem Soleimani because they saw him as a potential threat, adding that he was exterminated “to stop a war and not to initiate a war,” according to Aljazeera.

However, the Iranians and other Islamic nationals in the region had joined their leaders and flocked the major streets of their countries to register their displeasure about the killing, as the lifeless body of the Commander Soleimani was brought to the City of Mashhad (Ahvas) for proper befitting burial.

Hazzan, in his speech, had unequivocally called for the avenge of the death of Soleimani as he described Trump as a leader who did not respect the territorial independence and integrity of any nation.

He spoke further that Trump wanted to use the attack to negotiate the control of the Iranian oil, to which they had resolved not to go into any parley talk with him and had vowed to revenge the death of Soleimani who was a powerful and influential leader in the region.

Following the death of Soleimani, al-Muhandis and others in the airstrike, sovereign states in the region such as Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq and some European nations had started reacting to the incident.

The Iraqi parliament had passed a resolution supported by a majority of 180 members to end the presence of foreign troops in the land and revocation of the US forces/military agreement, sequel to a call for the action by the country’s outgoing Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.

As the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayattolah Ali Hussein Khamenei promised a harsh revenge, according to Aljazeera, the Iranian armed forces said that US was responsible if war broke out in the region.

Meanwhile, Germany, through an envoy, has maintained that the US’s reaction in airstrike was as a result of the provocation in the region as masterminded by Iran.

However, Trump, in his reaction to the threats of reprisal from the region, has stated that about 52 Iranian sites would be attacked if Tehran ever launched any attack on the American citizens or its assets, a threat which Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, has debunked, saying the states would rather attack the Iranian decision makers.

In another swift reaction, the Pentagon announced movement of 3,000 more troops to the Middle East after the killing of Soleimani as Trump insisted, “We’ll strike more hard and fast” if Iran hit any American or its assets in the region.