In an interview with IRNA, former head of Tehran-based ECO Cultural Institute professor Iftikhar Hussain Arif offered his condolences to the people and the governments of Iran and Iraq on the tragic incident.
Former Director General of the National Language Promotion Department expressing his views said the oppressed people around the world are standing shoulder to shoulder with Iranian and Iraqi nations in this time of grief.
He added that Iraq was hosting the IRGC Quds force commander Lieutenant General Qasem Soleimani as an independent nation. He noted the Iranian commander was there to hold meetings with senior Iraqi officials.
The intellectual noted that the US without giving a heed to the internal laws took the cowardly act of targeting the brave Iranian general. “The assassination of General Soleimani is a barbaric act which is highly condemned,” said the scholar.
Iftikhar Hussain Arif giving views on Trump’s threat to target cultural sites in Iran said that warmongers who always want to ruin the peace of the world have no respect for cultures.
“Even an ordinary person knows that the attack on cultural sites is a foolish act,” noted the intellectual.
He urged the United Nations especially the UNESCO to take notice of such threats saying that historical and cultural sites in Iran are an intentionally recognized heritage which should be protected at all costs.
“We have seen that how terrorists have destroyed thousands of years old historical, cultural sites including the shrines of religious personalities in Syria and Iraq so the UNESCO should not keep silent to Trump's threat and take action on that,” stressed the cultural personality.
IRGC Quds Force Commander Lieutenant General Qasem Soleimani and the Deputy Commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), known as Hash al-Shaabi, Abu Mahdi Al-Mohandes, separately leaving Baghdad airport in two cars were targeted and assassinated by the US on Friday morning.
The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei announced three days of public mourning on the martyrdom of the Commander.
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