TEHRAN – Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has issued a statement, marking the anniversary of the martyrdom of General Qassem Soleimani, the revered anti-terror commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force.

The statement says endeavors by the late general dealt a blow to the United States hegemony in the region. “The erosion of the political and security power of the hegemony system and the collapse of the American order in the region and in the world are the lasting legacy of this martyr and the fighters of the resistance front,” read the statement.

The IRGC underlined in its statement that the U.S. assassination of General Soleimani failed to destroy the impact of his legacy. The statement further noted that the name and memory of martyr Soleimani is widely revered in Islamic communities and by the new generations in the region.

Meanwhile, large numbers of people from across Iran converged on the tomb of the late general in his hometown Kerman in the southeast of the country to pay their respects to the highly revered anti-terror commander. 

General Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), and their companions were assassinated in a U.S. drone strike authorized by U.S. President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.

General Soleimani made great strides and secured numerous achievements in fighting terror, namely in the fight against the Daesh terrorist group during the 2010s. 

He also countered the "Greater Middle East" plots orchestrated by the U.S. and the Israeli regime with the support of certain European countries and regional countries aimed at dividing Syria and Iraq into smaller states. General Soleimani, as part of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s strategy, worked to preserve and defend these nations' territorial integrity and sovereignty. Furthermore, he is described as the architect of the “Axis of Resistance”, a network of allied forces fighting Israeli and American occupation and aggression in their home countries.