Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the IRGC aerospace commander, said that Iran decided not to wage a war to avenge the US killing of Qassem Soleimani because “it was not logical.”

A short video released by Etemadonline, an Iranian daily, shows the IRGC commander saying that a war with the US at that point could have inflicted heavy casualties on Iran, killing 10-15,000 civilians and soldiers. It would also see Iran regress for 10 to 20 years, he added.

According to Hajizadeh, the Iranian officials noted at that time that having a full-scale confrontation with the US would not be conducive to “desired results.”

This is while Tehran previously claimed that Washington called for immediate deescalation after its airstrike which claimed the life of Soleimani.

Soleimani, the Iranian regime’s top military and intelligence operator in the Middle East, was killed in a US drone strike in January 2020 in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad. He oversaw the regime’s proxies in the region.

Washington justified the action by saying that Soleimani was actively planning attacks against American diplomats and military personnel in Iraq and the broader region.

Iranian leaders have often vowed to avenge Soleimani including threatening the assassination of former US President Donald Trump, who gave the green light for the commander's death.

Speaking on the occasion of the third anniversary of Soleimani’s killing, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also said that nearly 60 US officials were blacklisted by Tehran for their involvement in the assassination of Tehran’s top commander.