Published on : 23/05/2022 – 10:41
In the aftermath of the assassination in the middle of the street in Tehran of a colonel of the Revolutionary Guards, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi promised Monday that this murder would be “avenged” during a speech evoking “the hand of world arrogance “, a reference to the United States and its allies.
This is a crime that Iran does not intend to let go unpunished: President Ebrahim Raisi assured Monday, May 23 that the assassination of an officer of the Revolutionary Guards, the day before in Tehran, would be “avenged”.
“I have no doubt that the blood of this great martyr will be avenged,” Ebrahim Raisi told state television.
Colonel Sayyad Khodai was shot dead by two motorcyclists in the east of the capital on Sunday, according to official sources.
This soldier is the most important figure whose assassination in Iran has been announced by Tehran since that of nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. The scientist was killed in November 2020 near the capital in an attack on his convoy attributed by Iran to Israel.
“There is no doubt that the hand of global arrogance can be seen in this crime,” said Ebrahim Raisi, an expression referring to the United States and its allies, in the official phraseology of the Islamic Republic.
“I insist on the serious pursuit [des auteurs du crime] by security officials,” added Ebrahim Raïsi, who is to fly to Oman, in the Gulf, for an official visit at the invitation of Sultan Haïtham.
The Guardians presented Sayyad Khodaï as a “defender of the sanctuary” and denounced a “terrorist act”.
This term refers to anyone working on behalf of the Islamic Republic in Syria and Iraq, two countries with Shiite places of worship and where Iran claims to be present through “military advisers”.
According to the television, the “farewell ceremony” for the colonel will take place at 5:00 p.m. (12:30 GMT) in Tehran.
Hit by five bullets
Sayyad Khodai was shot five times in the attack, which occurred around 4 p.m. (11 a.m. GMT), as he was returning home, according to the official Irna news agency.
Irna posted photos showing a man covered in blood sitting in the driver’s seat of a car with broken windows.
The Tasnim news agency for its part specified that Sayyad Khodai was “close to his home” when he was killed and that “his wife was the first person to discover the body”.
The assassination of Colonel Khodai comes as Iran has been engaged for more than a year in negotiations with world powers to revive an international agreement concluded in 2015 to frame its nuclear programbut from which Washington unilaterally withdrew in 2018.
Negotiations have been stalled for two months, even though a draft text seemed within reach of signature.
One of the latest hurdles is Tehran’s demand that the US remove the Revolutionary Guards from the US blacklist of “foreign terrorist organizations”.
With AFP