A senior Iranian military official said Friday night his country is still seeking revenge for Washington’s 2020 ouster of General Qassem Soleimani in hopes of “killing” former US President Donald Trump.
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“We hope to kill Trump (former US Secretary of State Mike) Pompeo and (Kenneth) McKenzie (former Chief of US Army Middle East Central Command) and the military official who gave the order for Soleimani’s assassination, General Amirali can Hajizadeh compared to the television.
“We are now able to hit American ships with missiles at a distance of 2,000 km,” said the general, who heads the aerospace forces of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army.
The Islamic Republic’s ballistic programs worry Westerners, who accuse the country of wanting to increase the range of its missiles and destabilize the Middle East and Israel, Tehran’s sworn enemy.
On Saturday, state television broadcast images of a “new Paveh cruise missile with a range of 1,650 km” manufactured by the Revolutionary Guards.
Qassem Soleimani, former head of the Quds Force in charge of the Revolutionary Guards’ external operations, was assassinated in January 2020 in an American raid in Baghdad.
President Trump said at the time he ordered the strike in response to a series of attacks on US interests in Iraq.
Five days later, Iran retaliated by firing missiles at a US airbase in Iraq where US troops were stationed. No US soldiers were killed, but Washington said dozens of people suffered traumatic brain injuries as a result of the blasts.