U.S. special representative for Iran Brian Hook said the successor to slain Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Brig. Gen. Esmail Ghaani, who now heads the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, would suffer the same fate if he also killed Americans, he told the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
After the U.S. assassinated Soleimani in a drone strike on Jan. 3, Iran quickly appointed Ghaani as the new head of the Quds Force and he pledged to continue Soleimani’s course.
“If he follows a similar path of killing Americans, he will meet the same fate because the president has made clear for years that any attacks against American personnel or interests in the region will be met with a decisive response,” Hook said in the interview with the London-based Arab daily published on Thursday.
“And I think the regime now understands that they cannot attack America at will and expect to get away with it. So we will hold the regime and its proxies accountable for any attacks on Americans or on American interests in the region,” he added.
“There is a role for the U.N. Security Council to play, to condemn Iran for violating the sovereignty of Saudi Arabia. That was an unprovoked attack by the regime against Saudi Arabia on Sept. 14, and the council needs to condemn it,” said Hook.
The U.S. envoy said that “Iran is not able to get away with the kind of terrorist attacks that they used to. That doesn’t mean that we’ve eliminated Iran’s ability to conduct asymmetric attacks, but our new policy is making a difference.”