Amirali Hajizadeh, commander of aerospace forces for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), boasted on Friday that his forces have developed a new cruise missile with a range of over 1,000 miles.
Hajizadeh suggested the missile would be useful in the IRGC’s ongoing quest to kill former U.S. President Donald Trump and his Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, for ordering the liquidation of Iranian terrorist mastermind Gen. Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
Protesters hold pictures of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, during a demonstration outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul, on January 5, 2020, two days after top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani was killed by a U.S. drone strike. (YASIN AKGUL/AFP via Getty Images)
“Our cruise missile with a range of 1,650 km has been added to the missile arsenal of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Hajizadeh said in a broadcast on Iranian state television that showed off the new Paveh missile.
“Within the next one or two years, we will have big leaps and the waves [of new weapons] will turn into tsunamis,” he promised.
Iran has a history of making grandiose claims about its military capability that cannot be verified independently. In November 2022, the Pentagon said it was “skeptical” of Hajizadeh’s boasts that the IRGC has developed a hypersonic missile.
The Iranian television program purportedly showed a Paveh missile launching, flying low over terrain, and accurately striking a target.
The IRGC has previously claimed to possess cruise missiles with a range of about 620 miles. The Paveh’s claimed range would make it capable of hitting targets in Israel, but Hajizadeh had other targets in mind.
“Allah willing, we are looking to kill Trump, Pompeo, or McKenzie, and those military commanders who gave the order” to kill IRGC Quds Force commander Soleimani, said Hajizadeh. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie was, and remains, commander of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).
Soleimani was killed in Iraq in January 2020 while in the process of orchestrating terrorist attacks against Americans, including a failed assault on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. The Iranian regime declared Soleimani a religious “martyr” and features his likeness prominently at pro-government rallies.
Speaking on the third anniversary of Soleimani’s demise in January, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi claimed that Iran is still seeking revenge.
“We have not forgotten and will not forget the blood of martyr Soleimani, and let them know that revenge for the blood of martyr Soleimani is certain,” he said.
The persistent anti-government protests that sprang up after “morality police” killed a young woman named Mahsa Amini for wearing her headscarf improperly in September 2022 often feature the burning of Soleimani photos as a gesture of contempt and resistance.
Hajizadeh claimed the IRGC could have killed a “thousand” American troops in revenge for Soleimani if it wanted to, but “they were just a bunch of poor soldiers who we weren’t looking to kill.”
He was referring to the Iranian missile attack on the Ayn al-Asad airbase in Iraq, launched on January 8, 2020, in retaliation for the death of Soleimani. No U.S. troops were killed in that attack, but Gen. McKenzie said there could have been more than a hundred casualties if precautions had not been taken, and the incident stands as the largest attack on U.S. forces by ballistic missiles.
On Saturday, the U.S. State Department took note of Hajizadeh’s remarks and warned Iran that any effort to harm American citizens would face a “strong response.”
“Iran would test our resolve to protect our citizens at great peril. As the Administration has consistently made clear, the United States will protect and defend its citizens. This includes those serving the United States now and those who served in the past,” the State Department said in an email to Al Arabiya News.