The assassination of the Iranian top commander, General Qassim Soleimani back in January last year was followed by many events, each and every one of which was a proof that the move was rather a strategic mistake for the U.S. than a ‘great victory’. One of such events that gained international attention was the glorious funeral of General Soleimani.
After the body arrived in the country, the funeral day was held three days following the terrorist attack, and there in Tehran, Mashhad and all across the country, the funeral was attended by millions in Iranians for the big loss and chanting “Death to America!” and “Revenge! Revenge!” His funeral was indeed one of the most crowded ever seen in Iran. Indeed, the ceremony rivaled the one held after the passing of the Islamic republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in 1989, analysts said. In the capital Tehran, Iranian men, women and children from all folks of life filled boulevards in the city center as they trudged alongside General Soleimani’s flag-draped coffin to the iconic Freedom Square.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers in the funeral, at one-point bursting into tears over Soleimani’s coffin. He was flanked by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Soleimani’s replacement as Quds commander, Esmail Qaani. “We promise to continue martyr Soleimani’s path with the same force, and the only compensation for us would be to remove America from the region,” Qaani told state radio ahead of the funeral back then.
General Soleimani’s funeral was also held in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and several other countries to pay their final respects to the Iranian military leader, who for many years during his life, fought bravely and fearlessly with the terrorists in the region, especially the ISIS group in Iraq and Syria.
In Iraq, for example, tens of thousands of people attended a funeral procession in Baghdad for General Soleimani and those killed along with him in the U.S. air strike, including Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi joined the procession, as did many Iraqis carrying the flags of Iranian-backed militias.
Following the U.S. terrorist attack and encouraged by the huge turnout of Iraqi people and officials to condemn the U.S. move, the Iraqi parliament voted to a resolution according to which, the Iraqi government must swiftly expel American troops from the Iraqi territories.
It was indeed after the glorious turnout that Washington realized the move was a terrible mistake and the U.S. is going to pay a heavy price for it in the near future. Fearful of this, Donald Trump was among the first who reacted to General Soleimani’s funeral, “warning” to Iran that the U.S. has targeted 52 Iranian sites, which, “will be hit very fast and very hard” should an attack on America occur. He desperately touted America’s military capabilities rather than admitting his strategic mistake, declaring U.S. military as the “biggest and by far the best in the world.”
The assassination of the Iranian top commander, General Qassim Soleimani was probably the U.S. biggest and most costly mistake in the Middle Eat during recent decades. This is because not only committing this terrorist attack didn’t help the U.S. to move its objectives in the region any further, but it also formed a firm determination among Iraqis and also among other neighboring countries that it is time for the U.S. to leave the region forever and never come back. And this was the very objective that General Soleimani fought for during the last 20 years of his life.
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