along with other western countries created a new world order in connovance with israel. america wanted to strengthen israel's identity in arab and other middle eastern countries. hasam sulaymani was the only person, the only leader who destroyed this new world order and this greater plot of america. lateim sulaymani peace be upon him was institution who is growing on people today. he was not just a person, but institution who fought for the oppressed of the world and made immense sacrifices all his life, we pay respect to our marter.

the true meaning of sacrifice, he was a real teacher of resistance against oppression, we are determined to continue the same part. three years ago we general qasim sulaymani who had a great impact on palestinian resistance. without his hard work and efforts, the resistance would have been unable to respond to the zionist enemy and teach them painful lessons. this year we commemorate the martidom anniversary of general soleimani and with the ongoing israeli unslot on gaza. general soleimani's support for the resistance front in the region was in line with the policy of the islamic. republic which attaches importance

to the palestinian cause. in the fourth anniversary of martidom of iranian commander qasim sulaymani, we remember that he supported the resistance not only in palestine but also in syria, iraq and yemen. he's a symbol of resistance against oppression. may allah have mercy on all our marters, including iranian commander gasim sulaimani who was assassinated on january 3rd, 2020.

the fourth martydom anniversary of our leaders, general sulaymani and haj abu mahdi, we assert our full commitment to the promises that our leaders took upon themselves to see the american military existence on iraq soil and preserve the country's sovereignty and unity. in the fourth anniversary, irakan nations across the region commemorate our leaders, general qasim sulaimani and haj abu mahti, who were martered in a c and affarious crime against two great leaders who fought terrorism in iraq and across the region. our leaders had a great role in building and empowering islamic resistance movements across the region, specifically in iraq and palestine. and what we have seen in palestine's tofan revolution was a clear witness on what our leaders have started, of which led to an absolute humiliation of the israel regime. our memorial stand in baghdad airport. on the fourth anniversary will be

assertion to our demand for revenge and remind the world of this horrible crime against great leaders who fought for the sake of freedom in the islamic nation. we also sent a message to our brothers in gaza that we are on the path of our leaders to support you against oppression, brave leaders who had a great role in supporting resistance movements in the arab nation, especially the palestine resistance. movement by supporting it logistically and ideologically leaders who said moral lessons in bravery, dignity, honor and showed absolute dedication in the struggle for freedom in the region, our great glorious leaders, general qasim sulaymani and allah have mercy on qasim sulaymani, if it of weren't for him we would not have much left of the islamic world, it was the main support of our brothers in palestine who are currently engaged in battle and are using the

same weapons provided for them, if it wasn't for him, iraq would not be iraq, and syria would not be syria, may allah bless our commander qasim sulayman. "the islamic world has indeed lost a great commander. after the 2006 war in lebanon ended, israel began to target hisbullah because they felt a threat and were concerned about his bullah's power. after this war, the us and israel began to assassinate muslim leaders, one of whom was qasim sulaymani. they did this to weaken us, but allah will surprise everyone. islam will emerge victorious. we consider qasim sulaymani as one of our islamic leaders and take..." in this, whether in yemen, syria, bahraain or any other place in the world, you cannot find a case of oppression without finding martter, qasim sulaimani is standing against it, the us army should wait and see, the army of qasim sulaimani will leave you

soiling your diapers, just as qasim sulaimani left you soiling yourself when you were inside your tanks, qasim sulaimani was a prominent and great resistance fighter, he rep presented the resistance movements in yemen, syria and lebanon against the zionis and the enemies of islam. welcome back everybody, today marks the fourth anniversary of the assassination of the iranian anti-terror commander, lieutenant general osem sulaimani, general sulaimani who was the commander of the quotz force of the irgc was assassinated in a us drone strike

outside of baghdad's international airport, and of course alongside general sulim, his long timeime friend and colleague abuhandis, who was iraq's popular mobilization union second in command, was all also killed uh, we've been uh giving you extensive coverage on this anniversary here on press tv, joining us now from the british capital, london, we have peace activist james thring and uh also academic broadcaster and investigative researcher david miller is joining us from bristol, gentlemen, welcome to the program, let's start off with mr. thring in london, sir, talk to us about uh the effect that uh general suleimoni has had on resistance in the region, how he helped strengthen it, "and why the united states wanted general sulaimani out of the picture? he was obviously very courageous upstanding hero of the oppressed, particularly those people in gaza, and he deserves the sort of tribute

we're giving him today. unfortunately, he was victim of course of the oppressors, namely the zionists, and they were using their friends..." in america, namely mr. trump, uh, to silence him, and that's a very disgraceful activity of the american administration, working for foreign power that's doing the right thing for humanity, what we all should be doing, helping the oppressed people, helping those people who are under military dictatorship, those people who have been starved and even had the aid cut off by the same military dictatorship in tel aviv, so he was doing a wonderful job in that sense, um, and of course he helped the west or other the zionist west to defeat daesh, which was one

their agents and sorry, helped the help the uh... the oppressed to defeat daesh, which is one of the agents of the the western zionist powers, up upsetting the middle east in general, and luckily he survived. he seems like very decent um, home, homely person, he was, he was not a sort of aggressive, the usual army type, he was friendly, he he got down amongst. the people and he showed a great deal of humor almost, he always seemed to be smiling, and a typical humanist taking up the sword of defense against oppression

and arrogance from the from the west over a piece of land in the mid. that they do not deserve, have no right to, and certainly have abrogated their right to by the way they've treated the palestinians in the... last 15 or 17 years, so he was a, he as much missed as a supporter of the palestinian cause and the middle east cause in general, i think. david miller, let's bring you in on the discussion as well, we know that general sulaymany was a leading figure in defeating daesh so much so that iraq's former prime minister nurial maliki in praising the late iranian general said that. terrorism fight would have failed without general saleimani, so talk to us

about the importance and the stature that general soni had in the resistance front, specifically when we're looking at at ensuring stability and security in the west asia region following the defeat of daesh, well i think people uh in the west would be surprised to hear you say that general sman. played a role in the defeat of daesh, because of course in the west it's believed that uh daish is this terrible muslim extremist group which is in alliance with uh other muslim extremist groups which they would refer to iran as and they would see the west is being engaged in syria for example and in iraq and to some extent in other places uh in opposition to daesh, so people don't understand the reality of the situation which is... that sammani was amongst the leading people who led the fight against daesh and

actually um defeated them in iraq and indeed in syria, when of course uh at the same time the west was, although technically supposed to be fighting daesh, was in fact of course attempting to remove the government of president bashar al-assad in syria in a regime change operation supported by number of other countries apart from the outside of the west, so "in the west people have this idea that this is a that uh sulaymani was a terrorist, that he was possibly even in alliance with daesh, and because of course in the west there's this idea that that any muslim who is engaged in uh armed violence or in resistance uh is part of the same sort of threat to the west, now people have no idea about the reality, and so the reality of course is that as everyone knows outside of the west or..." "most people know that uh salmani led the fight against daesh and - was

was was in large measure responsible as is the president of iraq put it for the defeat of daesh and of course in ensuring the security and st stability of west asia and of course west asia is not stable at present and we have all sorts of threats to stability most obviously and most pointedly at the very present time uh the genocide in gaza. "now of course he uh, salmani was key element of the development of what's called the resistance axis and again in the west people don't really know what that means, what that means is that there are number of groups and individuals in in different countries who are engaged in a common fight against zionist aggression in lebanon, of course hezballah, there are many, many factions in iraq, i think possibly 23 factions in addition to uh..." those which are referred to as the islamic resistance in iraq, and of course there are the 10 factions in gaza, the

palestinian factions fighting the zionists as we speak, and of course there is iran, the islamic republic of iran, and of course we cannot forget to mention in any discussion of such matters uh, the role of yemen, and the government of yemen, and serala, often called in the west the hootis, inaccurately, and that is the resistance access together with the syrian uh government uh and it's a it's an axis which is increasingly working together and that that i think is the most important thing, it's not that people in the west again see this is the as uh proxies of iran, but of course actually what it is is a an alliance between uh various different groups against western influence against the zionists in order to try and uh defeat the aggression in the middle east which is represented in particular by the zionist colony in occupied palestine so he played a remarkable leading role in all that process such that in iraq, in palestine, in lebanon,

that there is a unity amongst the resistance factions and which previously didn't exist even until a couple of years ago, and so for example i was in just to finish, i was in iran uh last last march, i think it was, and you cannot fail to be struck when you travel around tehran by the reverence with which the iranian people hold uh kasim sulaimani, kasim sulaimani. and in particular the huge murals that there are of his smiling face and many places in in the the capital of iran, so i would say you know to in order to answer your question really the... the the the view of castom sullaman there is in west asia is a entirely different view uh than there is in the west which has this impossibly distorted understanding of what has been happening in west asia? sure let's go back to uh mr. james thring um when we're looking at um the issue

of uh the goals that were uh being pursued by the assassination of uh general. so they money and then we see the repetition of that behavior being carried out by the israeli regime with the assassinations that uh took place within the last week in lebanon, in syria as well, what is to gain here for uh for this type of behavior? uh, many believe that this is just another way of um venting frustration as the us slash israeli front is losing uh the uh the... overall battle against the resistance front as well, would you say that the us and israeli actions are in fact strengthening the resistance front in the region as opposed to what they are initially pursuing? well they initially uh do weaken it because the best people are taking the lead and if they get their heads cut off by the assassins that does have a temporary

weakening effect, but i think the injustice. of it all, the way it's being done makes a lot more people come to the for to try and get justice for these people, so it weakens their overall intent, which is of course to dominate the region, and i think they're simply stirring up people who would normally feel that they had no power and couldn't do anything to to take action. themselves and we've seen that in gaza, these very brave people, schooled no doubt by hassem and leading the casan brigades, still firing rockets at at israel after the country's been virtually devastated, how they managed to do that, i don't know, but all power to their

elbow, and it does show that evil does... not win by being evil, that the more evil they are, the more the united world realizes that they're not a legitimate state, there are a terrorist state, and that will lead to their being embargoed, people other states will not wish to deal with them, even the media is beginning to show... some horror about the way the israelis have attacked these innocent people in gaza in particular and now in the west bank and lebanon as well, it's it shows that there a terrorist organization out of control, they have their regard for human

rights is zero, whereas most of the rest of the world believes in protecting. human rights, this has been a thing for decades now that we put minorities first, we we protect people who are under oppression and aggression and under attack, got are starving, who have got no access to aid and no defenses, so i think it's in the long run it's counterproductive for them to keep killing. the people who lead that the resistance against their oppression. mr. miller uh, i want to get your thoughts on uh the same issue that we were just discussing with with mr. thring, and uh that would be uh looking at uh the legality of this um, this assassination that took place back when it happened, many were stating that the united

states was acting like rogue state uh, and this was an act of state terrorism, and then we look at the uh um us as surrogate in the region, the israeli occupying regime, they're carrying out assassinations as well against uh senior leaders of the resistance front, one in syria against an iranian military advisor and one just recently uh in uh in lebanon violating the sovereignty of these uh these countries uh so uh i want to get your thoughts on uh these actions that are being carried out uh and the issue of uh accountability which should human rights order is a farse, is a joke and is a cover for western military intervention and abuse, so there will never be

accountability through the international mechanisms, and that's why accountability has to be um brought about by other means, by other states acting together, and of course in particular, the area which gives hope in in regard to that is the emergence of multiolarity. in the diminution of us power, but on the question of of the legality, of course it was an act of state terrorism, but let's remember it was this was done by trump, trump, the famously isolationist uh candidate and then president who uh wanted to put america first uh, but of course uh it was compromised if you if you see it like that by both the uh counter terrorism uh intelligence and security apparatus of the u.s. and indeed of course by the fact that he has within his own family very strong zionist influences through for example jared kuschner, so you you have this position with the american

right, that this this desire to put america first, but you problem, the problem with it of course is the the influence of zionism on us policy and the ability of the zionis to impose their views above those of the america firster, so you can either be a... first or you can be israel first, but you cannot be both, and that that's been the problem with with - with trump of course, and he has said himself, some made some remarks that actually he felt that the israelis had treated him and america badly over kassimmani's assassination, and at some point in the future he would give the the full truth about what happened, so it certainly indicates that there was some kind of trouble in paradise in the relationship. between the israelis and the americans in that particular case. now to move to the the other assassinations, mean certainly we've seen in the past uh israeli

assassinations, let's remember of course the uh the doha assassinations where the mozard officials dressed up as um tennis professionals and tried to execute um sorry my f and try to execute - did execute a hamas commander in doha. now we had the recent executions uh the irgc commander in syria and uh in beirot just yesterday the uh assassination of a senior hamas member and indeed of two i think two cassum brigades commanders let's remember for western viewers that casum brigades is the military wing of hamas is a islamic resistance movement which incorps incorporates civil resistance. uh and this military wing is the is aldeen brigades uh so that that that's been a strategy which the israel are using evidently to escalate so

they've they have started to move out of gaza let's remember they removed the galani brigades uh a week or so ago uh on the basis that a quarter of its forces were wiped out on october the seventh and another quarter were wiped out uh by camsim and by all's brigades and the other uh eight factions in gaza and they had to be removed, but then just the other day they started to remove other brigades from gaza, and of course what's happening here is pivot to the north, and the reason that they're doing these assassinations of course, cowardly as they are, as people have been saying is is that they are losing in gaza, and that they want to find a way escalate in order that they can bring the us more firmly in on their side, of course we know the us is already... directly collaborating and of course allowing what's happening, but the us has shown signs of of um not wanting escalate at this stage and

indeed of being afraid, i use the word advisedly afraid of escalation, so if i can just explain that a little bit, when we saw just the other day the uh the response of the americans to the closure of the red sea biordinary. ability to simply shut down all shipping going to and from israel, including shipping which was was not israeli but which is helping by mr. miller, i'm sorry, i'm going to jump in there for second, we're going to address one last question to mr. thring before uh he leaves the program uh, mr. thring, we're talking about the issue of accountability, i'd like to get your final thoughts on that issue as well, there's some serious um loop holes and some uh and lacking basically in uh in the global mechanisms to see account in such such instances? well, first of all, the accountability of people like bush is questionable, because we know

from past experience that the... lobby uh presses the united states administration, especially the presidents to do their bidding, and they have weapons, mostly media type weapons, but also financial, to make them to say what they want or do what they want, and i'm pretty sure that mr. trump didn't really know what he was doing when he assassinated major general casam sulaiman. me so sorry, and i think he would presumably have regretted that when he found out that he was actually working for peace and for and and doing it in a way that was actually helping the west and and israel indirectly, so i think one must apologize if you like for

trump in that. as far as accountability at the united nations is concerned, i keep pressing the various actors in the security council to use the article 27 of the united nations charter, which says that parties to a dispute forfit their right to vote, so the secretary general, and i i sent a christmas card to him to this effect. should be saying to the united states, i'm sorry, as a party to the dispute with palestine and israel, you may not vote issues about cease fires, you are funding one side, you are supporting one side and not the other, that would begin to change things round, because the rest of the world is clearly on the side of the palestinians, so from that point of view,

accountability would be paramount, as far as accountability for the israel is, i mean, they're just beyond any kind of rules of law, they they they just, they dismiss any kind of united nations security council resolution, they dismissed even rules from the international criminal court, about the wall, and that's a comparatively minor thing. uh, let's hope that the icj has a little bit more guts when it comes to prosecuting netanyahu for his genocide of the palestinian people, and let's face it, i think uh kesem uh actually held the peace in a way, it's since his death, things have got much more aggressive.