Iran summons Swiss envoy to protest U.S. threats

TEHRAN, Nov. 5 (MNA) – The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Swiss ambassador to Tehran, Livia Leu Agosti, on Thursday to protest at a U.S. Congressional committee last week urging the targeted assassination of members of the Qods Force of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps. A written message was submitted to the Swiss diplomat in order to be conveyed to U.S. officials. The Swiss Embassy in Tehran hosts the U.S. Interests Section in Iran. The Foreign Ministry director for the North America Department told the Swiss ambassador that the U.S. government’s questionable silence on holding such meetings is in contravention of Washington’s legal obligations with regard to the campaign against terrorism. Considering threats made at the meeting against the Islamic Republic of Iran’s officials, Tehran will hold the U.S. government accountable for any terrorist action against Iranian officials, the Foreign Ministry official said. Iran’s protest came after two military analysts, who were invited to speak as expert witnesses, gave testimonies to the U.S. Congress’s Homeland Security Committee on October 26. According to Firstpost, at the committee, a U.S. retired four-star general who helped plan the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, Jack Keane, called for the killing of leaders of Iran’s Qods Force in retaliation for their alleged role in a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington, a claim vehemently denied by Iranian officials. “Why don’t we kill them? We kill other people who are running terrorist organizations against the United States,” he said. The other witness, Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA officer who is now a senior fellow at the neo-conservative think-tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, has also said, “I don’t think that you are going to really intimidate these people, get their attention, unless you shoot somebody.” He also argued that an attempt should be made to capture or kill the commander of the Qods Force, Qasem Suleimani.