Gen. Soleimani Receives Iran’s Highest Military Order ‘Zulfaqar’

The top general is the first Iranian official to receive the order following the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a message on Monday congratulated General Soleimani on receiving the prestigious order.

He praised the top general’s efforts in fight against Takfiri terrorism and extremism in the region, adding that such efforts have prepared the grounds for creating a strong and stable region free from violence and radicalism.

General Soleimani is widely known as one of the most influential military commanders in the world.

The Washington-based magazine Foreign Policy recently put the name of General Soleimani on top of its 2019 list of Global Thinkers in the defence and security field.

A short write-up on the senior Iranian commander described him as the “public face of Iran’s response to US President Donald Trump’s threats.”

General Soleimani made headlines last July, when he delivered a blistering response to an all-caps tweet addressed to President Hassan Rouhani, in which Trump had issued a military threat against the Islamic Republic.

The IRGC commander is widely seen as a strategist and adviser in the counter-terrorism operations against Takfiri terrorists in Syria and Iraq.

The powerful general leads Iranian military advisers backing the national armies of Syria and Iraq in their fight against terrorism.

General Soleimani was present on the ground to supervise the decisive stages of Iran-backed operations against Daesh, which lost in late 2017 all the territories it had seized in Iraq and Syria.

He declared the end of Daesh’s territorial rule in a letter addressed to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in November 2017. Ayatollah Khamenei had earlier described him as a “living martyr”.