WANA (Jan 06) – The Iranian Embassy in London has denounced as baseless and illegal the recent remarks by UK MP Tom Tugendhat, who linked the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani to the potential fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

 

The embassy criticized the statements as unethical and a sign of irresponsibility, emphasizing that supporting terrorism and inciting violence contradict international norms.

 

The embassy issued a statement on Monday via the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), asserting: “Supporting extrajudicial killings and assassination is completely unlawful and unethical. Calling for war and aggression against a United Nations member state is reckless and thoughtless.”

 

The statement added, “Only an uninformed and irresponsible individual with a questionable past could endorse lawlessness, incite violence, and advocate for attacking another nation.”

 

Tom Tugendhat, UK MP for Tonbridge and a known supporter of the anti-Iranian MEK group, recently alleged that former U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to assassinate General Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, triggered a chain of events leading to the fall of Assad’s government in Syria.

 

Tugendhat, who served as the UK’s Minister for Security in the previous Conservative government, actively pushed for designating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization—a campaign that ultimately failed.

 

General Soleimani, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy leader of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, and eight others, was assassinated on January 3, 2020, in a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad Airport, ordered by then-President Donald Trump.

 

Last week, the Iranian Embassy on X described General Soleimani as a “hero in the fight against terrorism” and a symbol of diplomacy, emphasizing that his martyrdom remains an inspiration for peace and security in the region and beyond.