In a post on his Twitter account on Friday, Saeed Khatibzadeh said cowardice in assassinating foreign leaders is a trademark of the United States and the Israeli regime and not Iran.
“@WashTimes should know better than to publish #FakeNews & spread anti-Iran bigotry -even though it has featured PAID content by the outlaw MeK terrorist cult,” the Iranian spokesperson said.
He ironically added that the American paper’s readers “deserve better!”
His message came after the Washington Times on Wednesday distorted remarks by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and falsely claimed that he has issued a death threat against the life of his outgoing American counterpart Donald Trump.
“In a few days, the life of this criminal (Trump) will end and he will go to the dustbin of history,” the paper wrongly quoted the Iranian president as saying.
Addressing a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday, Rouhani described the assassination of top Iranian anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani as “an act of revenge” by the US and Israel against the Islamic Republic and other independent nations that foiled the pair’s sinister plots to destabilize the region.
Rouhani added, "One of the effects of the stupid and disgraceful act of assassinating Martyr Soleimani was that Trumpism ended, and in a few days, this murder's mandate is drawing to an end and he will go down into the dustbin of history.”
He said Iran believes that the period after the end of Trump’s mandate would create a “better condition for regional and international stability,” Press TV reported.
Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Units, were assassinated along with their companions in a US terror drone strike authorized by President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.
The two commanders were highly popular because of the key role they played in eliminating the US-sponsored Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.