Iran blasts NATO chief for justifying US assassination of Gen. Soleimani

Iran has taken a swipe at the chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for his comments supporting the US assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, expressing regret that the military alliance has turned into a tool for justifying the West's moves to achieve political objectives.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi said on Wednesday that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's comments on the Friday assassination of General Soleimani disregard the principles of international law. 

“Justifying the US regime’s unfair assassination of General Soleimani is shutting eyes to the role of this great commander in the decisive and crucial fight against terrorists and destruction of Daesh and eliminating the threat of that savage terrorist group from the region and the areas beyond, as far as the European borders,” Mousavi added.

He said the NATO secretary general has mocked the world public opinion by justifying the US assassination of a high-ranking Iranian military official who had been invited by Iraq’s legitimate government.

“The performance of this military organization (NATO), whose influential member is a terrorist state on a global scale, namely the US regime, has resulted in no achievement in recent years but devastation, wars and insecurity for the people of the region and the world,” Mousavi noted.

The spokesman expressed regret that NATO has become a tool for justifying the measures by the United States and a number of its European allies to achieve their ominous political objectives in the region.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran believes that security will return to the region when the terrorist activities of the extra-regional forces, some of whom are active under the flag of NATO, would end and providing regional security would be entrusted to the regional governments," he added.

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Speaking to reporters after an emergency meeting of NATO in Brussels, Stoltenberg said the US has “provided the rationale behind the action against General Soleimani."

“We had several briefers from the United States and from the Pentagon, and they briefed and explained to other allies why they took this action against General Soleimani,” Stoltenberg said without going into details.

Instead of condemning the US for the assassination, the NATO chief urged Iran to "refrain from further violence and provocations."

Early on Wednesday, the IRGC fired volleys of ballistic missiles at Ain al-Assad Airbase in the western Iraqi Anbar Province, and another outpost in Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan, both of which housed US forces, in retaliation for the assassination of Gen. Soleimani.

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