A top Iranian military commander said on Friday that Iran's ultimate revenge on the United States for the elimination of top commander Qassem Soleimani is yet to come, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Soleimani, head of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, was killed in a US drone strike ordered by then-US President Donald Trump in neighboring Iraq in January of 2020.
Hossein Salami, the chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), made the remarks when addressing a commemoration ceremony in the central province of Isfahan.
Commenting on Tehran's revenge for the US elimination of Soleimani, Salami said Iran threw the first "slap" by launching missiles at US Ain al-Asad base in the Iraqi province of Anbar just a few days after Soleimani's death.
"The second slap is nothing but the US gradual pullout from the region," the commander said, noting the "third slap" has not been delivered yet.
Iran has long vowed to avenge Soleimani’s death. In 2020, it issued an arrest warrant against Trump and asked for Interpol's aid in detaining him in the killing of Soleimani.
Interpol swiftly rejected the request, saying its guidelines for notices forbids it from "any intervention or activities of a political" nature.
Last year, Iran announced it seeks to prosecute 127 suspects, who were not named, for involvement and cooperation in the elimination of Soleimani.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan later warned that Iran will face severe consequences if it attacks Americans, including any of those it sanctioned.
Also in 2022, an animated video published on the website of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei depicted the assassination of Trump.