“We had [never before] seen a US president explicitly announcing that he had assassinated a senior military commander who was a guest in a third country,” Rouhani told a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday.
“With what this stupid terrorist did, ‘state terrorism’ was inscribed on the forehead of the United States. Today is the end of the political life of the individual who violated international law and [US] obligations for four years,” Rouhani added.
General Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Units, were assassinated along with their companions in a US terror drone strike near Baghdad International Airport on January 3.
Both commanders were highly popular because of the key role they played in eliminating the Daesh Takfiri terrorist in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.
The cowardly assassination operation was carried out under the direction of Trump, whose term ends on Wednesday. Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th US president later today.
Elsewhere in his comments, Rouhani said Iran expects those taking office in the US to return to the rule of law and work to erase all “the black stains” recorded in US history over the past four years.
“If they (American statesmen) sincerely return to the law and show their honesty in practice, we will also fulfill our own commitments,” he said.
In 2015, Iran and six world states — namely the US, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China — signed the Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which was ratified in the form of UN Security Council Resolution 2231.
However, Trump pulled the US out of the JCPOA in May 2018 and reinstated the anti-Iran sanctions that had been lifted by the nuclear deal.
The Trump administration also launched the so-called maximum pressure campaign and targeted the Iranian nation with the “toughest ever” restrictive measures.
As the remaining European parties failed to fulfill their end of the bargain under US pressure, Iran moved in May 2019 to scale back its JCPOA commitments under Articles 26 and 36 of the accord covering Tehran’s legal rights.
Biden has pledged to rejoin the accord, which was inked when he was vice president, if the Islamic Republic returns to compliance.
The Iranian chief executive said, “It has become evident to our nation and the whole world that the policy of economic terrorism and maximum pressure has failed 100 percent. Of course, the Iranian people suffered under the pressure and economic war, but they endured [the hardships] and, through resistance, did not allow the enemies’ goals to be realized.”
“Today, the ball is in Washington's court. If they honor their commitments, so will we,” he added.
“Trump is gone but the JCPOA is alive. All the attempts of American extremists, regional reactionaries and the Zionists were for the JCPOA to die, but today the JCPOA is alive. Trump and his dark record are history, but the JCPOA is still alive.”
Rouhani further said Trump’s legacy is America’s isolation, and that the United States is standing alone in international organizations regarding the issues of Palestine and the JCPOA, among others.