TEHRAN, Jan 4, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The deputy commander of Iran’s
Revolutionary Guards said Washington had asked Tehran to respond “in
proportion” after US forces killed top military commander Qasem Soleimani.
Soleimani, the commander of its Quds Force foreign operations arm, was
killed before dawn Friday in a US drone strike in Baghdad, along with nine
others, in an attack Tehran has vowed to avenge.
Hours later, the Americans “resorted to diplomatic measures… on Friday
morning”, the Guard’s Rear-Admiral Ali Fadavi said on Iranian state
television that night.
They “even said that if you want to get revenge, get revenge in proportion
to what we did”, he said, as quoted on the broadcaster’s website.
Fadavi did not specify how Iran had received the message from its arch-
enemy, even though Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic relations for
four decades.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in separate television
interview on Friday night that “Switzerland’s envoy transmitted a foolish
message from the Americans this morning”.
The Swiss official “was summoned in the evening and received a decisive
response in writing… to the Americans’ audacious letter,” Zarif added.
The Swiss foreign ministry confirmed Saturday that its charge d’affaires
had handed over a letter from Washington to the Iranians when he was summoned
to the foreign ministry on Friday morning.
Switzerland’s embassy in Tehran has represented US interests in the
Islamic republic since ties were cut in 1980.
But Fadavi said the United States was not in a position “to determine”
Iran’s response.
“The Americans must await severe revenge. This revenge will not be limited
to Iran,” he said.
“The ‘Resistance Front’, with a vast geography, is ready to materialise
this revenge,” he added, referring to Iran’s allies across the Middle East.