Brigadier General Esmail Qaani made the remarks on Thursday night at the “Nasr Qarib” ceremony in Tehran, held to mark the second anniversary of the martyrdom of the leaders of the Lebanese Resistance, including Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, according to a report by Press TV.
“This year’s anniversary is being observed at a time when the US, despite possessing vast resources and equipment, has been expelled from Iraq, and the Iraqi people are celebrating this victory, thanks to the resistance of the Iraqi nation and the heroes of the Resistance Front,” he said.
He added that although conditions remain difficult, the Resistance Front is advancing by the grace and power of God. “Today we witness the unity of the arenas within the Resistance Front, with each of its components catching the enemy off guard through prudent planning and calculated actions.”
Qaani said the Americans had imagined they could force Iran to surrender within four days, or two weeks at most, “but they encountered a reality vastly different from their calculations.”
Recalling the guidance of the martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, he said that during the “Nasr” Friday prayers — held one week after the martyrdom of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah — the Leader had stressed that the unity of Muslims brings honor and, through divine wisdom, paves the way for the realization of their goals.
“He stated that every nation must remain vigilant against enemy aggression directed at other nations and must support oppressed peoples; for if the enemy succeeds in one location, it will inevitably target the next,” Qaani said.
He called for strengthening “the belt of defense, the pursuit of independence, and dignity” across the Islamic world, stretching from Afghanistan to Yemen and from Iran to Gaza and Lebanon.
“Today, thanks to the blood of martyrs such as Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, the unity of Islamic nations is strengthening, and divisive forces are suffering greater defeats than ever before,” he added.
On Iraq, the Quds Force commander said the country has expelled the United States and that, God willing, coordination among the government, state institutions, and the children of the Resistance will carry Iraq toward greater well-being, steadfastness, and sovereignty.
Remaining traces of the US presence in other arenas must also be eliminated, he said, adding that signs of this process are already visible.
He said Washington is downplaying the significance of its expulsion from Iraq in the eyes of world public opinion by raising peripheral issues, such as aircraft flights.
“The children of the Resistance maintain a presence in one of the region’s most critical areas, Iraq, steadfastly and with prudence and strategic planning, as they continue on their path,” he stated.
Qaani said the United States and the Zionist regime had launched their attack in an attempt to force the Islamic Republic to surrender. “For 47 years, the Islamic Republic has faced various plots and hostile actions by the criminal US; when they realized that intermediaries and other methods were yielding no results, the US and the Zionist regime launched a joint attack on Iran.”
Their plan, he said, was to compel surrender within a few days. “However, by the grace of God and under the guidance of the Leader, the Iranian nation stood firm and powerful, and the enemy’s plots collapsed one after another.”
Even at the height of the war, he added, the Islamic Republic did not forget its friends or the nations oppressed by the US and the Zionist regime. “It has stood by them to this day and will continue to do so in the future.”
Turning to Lebanon, Qaani said Hezbollah had fought heroically in one of the toughest wars it has faced since its founding. “While propaganda claimed that Hezbollah had been destroyed and no longer possessed the capacity to resist, Hezbollah fighters entered the battlefield just two days after the war began, and after the martyrdom of our exalted Leader, and have fought so valiantly that they have astonished both friend and foe across the globe.”
He described as apt the words of Hezbollah Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem: “We fought with the spirit of Ashura and Karbala.”
“I state unequivocally that the Zionist regime has suffered more fatalities in this war than in any other period of its entire sinister existence, yet it conceals its casualty figures,” he said.
The Resistance Front, Qaani concluded, continues its path with honor and pride, inspired by the blood of its martyrs and the course set by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Sayyed Hashem Safieddine.
Earlier on Thursday, the IRGC said the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq heralds their expulsion from the West Asia region and the entire Muslim world.
On Wednesday, the US military completed its withdrawal from Iraq, with the last troops leaving a base in Erbil under an agreement between Baghdad and Washington to end the US-led military occupation.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who presided over the handover ceremony, described the withdrawal as the beginning of “a new phase” defined by Iraq’s sovereignty, stronger state institutions and “balanced partnerships with its friends.”
The United States invaded Iraq in March 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime, falsely claiming that Baghdad possessed weapons of mass destruction.
US-led coalition forces withdrew from Iraq in December 2011, but returned in 2014, using the seizure of large swathes of territory by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group as a pretext for their renewed military presence.
MNA
