On Wednesday, a senior Iranian Guards commander said killing all American leaders would not be enough to avenge the assassination of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ top commander, Qassem Soleimani.

“Martyr Soleimani was such a great character that if all American leaders are killed, this would still not avenge his assassination,” Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Mohammad Pakpour was quoted as saying by Iranian state media.

Mr Pakpour added, “We should avenge him by following Soleimani’s path and through other methods.’’

Mr Pakpour’s comments came days after the U.S. Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he did not support removing Iran’s Quds Force, an arm of its Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), from a list of foreign terrorist organisations, as demanded by Tehran for the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal.

The United States and Iran came close to full-blown conflict in 2020 after Mr Soleimani’s killing in a U.S. drone attack at Baghdad airport and Tehran’s retaliation by attacking U.S. bases in Iraq.

Former President Donald Trump’s administration, said Mr Soleimani was targeted for plotting future attacks on U.S. interests and that he had helped coordinate strikes on American forces in Iraq in the past through militia proxies.

Mr Trump abandoned the deal under which Iran had agreed to curb its nuclear programme in return for lifting international financial sanctions, and Iran responded by violating its limits.

President Joe Biden, however, said he aimed to restore it.

Almost a year of indirect talks between both countries has stalled since March as both Tehran and Washington blame each other for failing to settle the remaining issues.

One of the unresolved questions was whether the United States would remove Iran’s Guards from the terrorist list.

Washington has been considering removing the IRGC from its foreign terrorist organisation blacklist in return for Iranian assurances about reining in the elite force’s influence in the Middle East.

Critics of dropping the IRGC from the list and those open to the idea said doing so would have a little economic effect because other U.S. sanctions force foreign actors to shun the group.

On Tuesday, Iran’s top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said his country’s future should not be tied to the success or collapse of nuclear talks with world powers.

(Reuters/NAN)