(Tehran) Iran has also made the administration of US President Joe Biden “responsible” for the decision of his predecessor Donald Trump to assassinate Qassem Soleimani, on the occasion of the launch on Friday of the commemorations marking the 2e anniversary of the elimination of the Iranian general.
“The terrorist attack […] was orchestrated and carried out in an organized manner by the American government at the time and for which the White House is now responsible, ”the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement Friday.
By international and legal standards, the US government bears “final international responsibility” for this crime, he adds.
Iran is launching a week of commemoration on Friday for the death of General Soleimani, one of the most important commanders of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, killed by an American drone strike on January 3, 2020 in the Baghdad airport.
He was eliminated along with nine other people including Abu Mehdi al-Mouhandis, number two in Hachd al-Chaabi, a coalition of predominantly pro-Iran paramilitaries now integrated into the Iraqi state.
A series of events are organized in Iran, including a parade of Iran’s “missile capabilities” on January 7.
These commemorations come in the midst of talks in Vienna to save the international Iranian nuclear agreement concluded in 2015. The pact has been dying since the unilateral withdrawal in 2018 of the Trump administration, which reinstated sanctions against Tehran, within the framework of a policy of maximum pressure on Iran.
These talks were relaunched at the end of November after a five-month hiatus between Tehran and the countries still party to the pact (France, United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, China).
They aim to bring the United States, which is participating in the negotiations indirectly, back into the agreement.
The pact offered Tehran the lifting of part of the sanctions stifling its economy in exchange for a drastic reduction in its nuclear program.
He urged him in particular to “not carry out any activity linked to ballistic missiles designed to be able to carry nuclear charges, including firing using ballistic missile technology”.
In response to the reinstatement of sanctions against it, Iran, which denies wanting to acquire the atomic bomb, has gradually freed itself from the limits imposed on its nuclear program.
Mr Biden supports the return of the United States to the deal, while asking his administration to prepare in case diplomacy fails.