TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson strongly condemned comments from the secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in justification of the American assassination of Iranian commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.

In a statement on Wednesday, Abbas Mousavi strongly condemned the recent comments from NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in justification of the US assassination of Lieutenant General Soleimani, saying the remarks have been made in disregard of the principles of international law.

“The performance of this military organization (NATO), one of whose influential members, namely the US regime, is a terrorist state on a global scale, has resulted in no achievement in recent years but devastation, wars, and insecurity for the people of the region and the world,” Mousavi said.

“Justifying the US regime’s measure in the unfair assassination of General Soleimani is shutting eyes to the role of this great commander in the decisive and crucial fight against terrorists and destruction of Daesh (ISIS) and eliminating the threat of that savage terrorist group from the region and areas beyond the region, as far as the European borders,” the spokesperson added.

Mousavi also noted that the NATO secretary-general has mocked the world public opinion by justifying the terrorist and thoughtless measure from the NATO’s biggest member before the shocked and worried eyes of the world to assassinate a high-ranking Iranian military official who had been invited by Iraq’s legitimate government.

The Iranian spokesperson expressed regret that NATO has become a tool for justifying the measures by the United States and a number of its European allies to achieve their ominous political objectives in the region.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran believes that security will return to the region when the terrorist activities of extra-regional forces, some of whom are active under the flag of NATO, would end and providing regional security would be entrusted to the regional governments,” he concluded, according to the Foreign Ministry’s website.

In remarks after a rare NATO meeting on Monday, Stoltenberg said all NATO members stood behind the US in the Middle East after the American assassination of Lt. General Soleimani in Iraq.