TASS, January 5: Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif slammed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as "an arrogant clown masquerading as a diplomat" on Saturday in response to Pompeo’s statement that Iraqis were allegedly celebrating the death of Iran’s General Qassem Soleimani.
Pompeo wrote on his Twitter account earlier that the Iraqis were "dancing in the street for freedom, thankful that General Soleimani is no more." He also posted a video of people carrying Iraqi flags, running and screaming
"24 hours ago, an arrogant clown - masquerading as a diplomat - claimed people were dancing in the cities of Iraq. Today, hundreds of thousands of our proud Iraqi brothers and sisters offered him their response across their soil. End of US malign presence in West Asia has begun," Zarif tweeted.
On Saturday, thousands of Iraqi Shiites participated in a farewell procession for the head of the Quds Force, an elite unite of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US airstrike near the Baghdad airport on Friday.
The Pentagon confirmed earlier that the operation was carried out at the direction of US President Donald Trump. According to the Pentagon, the strike was defensive and aimed at protecting the US troops in Iraq and other countries. Washington claims that the attacks planned by the Iranian general could have caused deaths of hundreds of Americans and Iraqis.
