Iran’s armed forces chief of staff in an implicit threat said Tuesday that wherever there is a trace of Gen. Qasem Soleimani “things will happen” to weaken the United States and “Zionists”.

General Mohammad Bagheri, who was speaking at a gathering on the second anniversary of Soleimani’s targeted killing by the US, said, “After Gen. Soleimani’s martyrdom we witnessed how the Americans escaped from Afghanistan in humiliation and were not even able to evacuate their allies and spies.”

Bagheri added that the US is “struggling to deceptively remain in Iraq”, but they will not succeed. The Americans will also be forced to leave Syria, he said and added, “Wherever there is a trace of martyr Soleimani things happen, and we will witness the weakening of the Zionists and the Americans, thanks to the blood Soleimani shed.”

The chief of staff praised Soleimani’s role in expanding the “resistance front”, a term used by Tehran to refer to its network of proxies and allies in the region. He emphasized that before Soleimani became the commander of the Qods Force, Iran’s proxy groups did not have “even one hundredth” of their current capabilities.

Bagheri insisted that Soleimani was a soldier for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and carried out his orders to create forces that would weaken Israel.

Soleimani was killed by a US drone strike on January 3, 2020.