During the meeting in Tehran on Wednesday, Amir Abdollahian called the IRGC Quds Force as a borderless soldier that plays a key role in helping spread of peace and security both in region and world.

He pointed to the unprecedented and unparalleled role of former IRGC Quds Force Commander Martyr Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani in the fight against terrorism, and said, “Had it not been for the key role of Iran’s anti-terror commander and hero of fight against terrorism Martyr Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, today, the region would look differently.”

If the ISIL had succeeded in Syria and Iraq, the world would have faced terrorism and extremism, Amir Abdollahian said.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry will proudly follow the path of Commander of Peace Martyr Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani persistently in line with institutionalizing peace and friendship with countries of the region and in the fight against terrorism, he added.

Lieutenant General Soleimani and Deputy Commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were assassinated in a US drone strike on Baghdad International Airport in Iraq on January 3, 2020.

On January 8, 2020, the IRGC Aerospace Force started heavy ballistic missile attacks on US Ein Al-Assad airbase in Southwestern Iraq near the border with Syria and a US operated airbase in Erbil in retaliation for the US assassination of General Soleimani.

Ein Al-Assad is an airbase with a 4km runway at 188m altitude from sea levels, which is the main and the largest US airbase in Iraq. Early reports said the radar systems and missile defense shields in Ein Al-Assad failed to operate and intercept the Iranian missiles. Unofficial reports said the US army's central radar systems at Ein Al-Assad had been jammed by electronic warfare.

The second IRGC reprisal attack targeted a US military base near Erbil airport in Iraqi Kurdistan Region in the second leg of "Martyr Soleimani" reprisal operation.

Iraq said the attacks had not taken any toll from its army men stationed at these two bases. The US army had blocked entrance into Ein Al-Assad to everyone, including the Iraqi army.

It was the first direct attack on the US army ever since world war two.

The IRGC officials said none of the missiles had been intercepted.

Iran has repeatedly stressed that Ein Al-Assad missile attack was just the start of its revenge for the US assassination of its top General, and not the end of it. Tehran has declared expulsion of the US troops from the region as its ultimate goal.