Iranian President Ebrahim Raïsi said Monday, May 23, that the murder of an officer in the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, would be “avenged” the day after the soldier’s death in Tehran during an unprecedented attack since November 2020.
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“I have no doubt that the blood of this great martyr will be avenged,” Ebrahim Raisi said on state television after the death of Colonel Sayyad Khodai, who was shot dead, according to official sources. “I have no doubt that the blood of this great martyr will be avenged,” Ebrahim Raisi told state television.
“Hand of Global Arrogance”
According to official information, Colonel Sayyad Khodai was shot dead by two motorcyclists in the east of the capital on Sunday. This soldier is the most important figure whose assassination Tehran in Iran has announced since nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
He was killed near the capital in November 2020 in an attack on his convoy that Iran blamed on Israel. “There is no doubt that the hand of global arrogance is seen in this crime,” said Ebrahim Raisi, an expression used in the Islamic Republic’s official phraseology to refer to the United States and its allies.
“act of terrorism”
“I insist on the sincere pursuit [du meurtrier] by security officials,” added Ebrahim Raisi, who is scheduled to fly to the Gulf of Oman on an official visit at the invitation of Sultan Haitham. The “farewell ceremony” for the colonel will be held at 17:00 (12:30 GMT) in Tehran, according to TV.
The guards portrayed Sayyad Khodaï as a “defender of the sanctuary” and denounced an “act of terrorism”. This term refers to anyone working on behalf of the Islamic Republic in Syria and Iraq, two countries with Shia places of worship and where Iran claims to have a presence through what it portrays as a “military adviser.”
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“The ones who lost on the spot [de bataille] in the face of the defenders of the sanctuary, they show their desperation,” said Ebrahim Raïsi without further elaboration. According to television, the colonel was “known” in Syria.
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