TEHRAN - Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani viewed security in the region as Iran’s security, the deputy chief for international affairs at the Office for the Preservation and Publication of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Works said on Sunday.

Mohsen Pakayeen made the remarks at a conference on Soleimani’s role in regional security hosted by the Islamic World Peace Forum.

“Martyr General Soleimani was a theoretician who believed Iran’s security is dependent on security outside borders,” Pakayeen said.

“He (Soleimani) believed no country would have security unless the whole region was secure,” Pakayeen added.

Pakaeen, who is also a member of the strategic council of the Islamic World Peace Forum, said Soleimani always attached great importance national sovereignty of other countries.

He added that Soleimani also defended territorial integrity of the countries.

Pakaeen, Iran’s former ambassador to the Republic of Azerbaijan, noted that it was Soleimani’s strategies and policies which led to annihilation of Daesh.

The United States assassinated Soleimani, Iran’s top anti-terror commander, in an airstrike in Baghdad on January 3.

Soleimani is recognized internationally as a legendary commander in the battle against terrorist groups, especially Daesh (ISIS). He commanded forces who resisted ISIS which was advancing toward the Iraqi Kurdistan and came close to Baghdad.  

Officials in Tehran and independent generals in the world have said the Soleimani assassination amounts to an act of war against Iran.

In an interview with Lebanese al-Mayadeen news network on Thursday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, “No person in their right mind would do such a thing. By doing this, Trump puts an end to presence of the United States in the region.”

He added, “A government, which is not courageous enough to fight a commander [on the battlefield] has to martyr him through a cowardly terrorist operation…. Americans and the Zionist regime always act like this.”

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has described the assassination of Soleimani as a “cowardly” act that brought “disgrace” upon the U.S.

NA/PA