Iran Condemns US Assassination of Gen. Soleimani as Illegal Act of Aggression

In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and President of the Security Council Abukar Dahir Osman on January 3, Saeed Iravani said the targeted assassination of Lt. General Soleimani during an official visit to Iraq breached the UN Charter, international human rights law, and fundamental principles governing the use of force.

The letter further linked the assassination to a broader pattern of unlawful US military actions, warning that continued international inaction risks undermining the global legal order and threatening international peace and security.

What follows is the full text of his letter:

In the Name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

Excellencies,

On the sixth anniversary of the cowardly assassination by the United States of Major General Qassem Soleimani --a top commander of the Iranian Armed Forces and a central figure in the fight against terrorist organizations, including Da'esh (ISIS)-- I wish to underscore, once again, the legal consequences and the unequivocal responsibility of the United States for committing such a criminal and unlawful act.

As documented in Iran's official communications addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council since 2020, including letters dated 3, 7, and 29 January 2020 (S/2020/13, S/2020/16, and S/2020/81), as well as 3 January 2022 (S/2022/5), 3 January 2023 (S/2023/7), 2 January 2024 (S/2024/4), and 2 January 2025 (S/2025/4), General Soleimani and his companions, while he was on an official visit to Iraq, were deliberately assassinated on 3 January 2020 in a premeditated US armed attack at Baghdad International Airport, carried out pursuant to the publicly acknowledged order of the then President of the United States. This deliberate and unlawful targeting of a senior official of a sovereign Member State of the United Nations-who played a pivotal role in the fight against terrorism in the region constitutes a flagrant violation of international law, including the Charter of the United Nations, and a grave breach of the international obligations of the United States. It further constitutes a grave act of aggression and a flagrant internationally wrongful act under international law, entailing the full and unequivocal international responsibility of the United States.

Moreover, this cowardly act of terrorism constituted an arbitrary deprivation of life in blatant violation of international human rights law, including Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which the United States is a State party. Any claim of self-defense, necessity, or imminence-none of which was ever substantiated—is devoid of legal basis and can never, under any circumstances, justify this blatant act of terrorism. The assassination of a high-ranking military official of a sovereign State set an exceptionally dangerous precedent, fundamentally compromising the prohibition on the use of force and posing a serious threat to international peace and security.

Regrettably, the international community's inaction has only emboldened the United States. In June 2025, the United States again resorted to the unlawful use of force against Iran, including through its direct involvement in, and support for, the Israeli regime's war of aggression against Iran's sovereignty and territorial integrity, in blatant violation of Article 2(4) of the Charter of the United Nations. These unlawful acts included attacks against civilians, civilian infrastructure, and Iran's peaceful nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards, resulting in the martyrdom of more than 1,100 innocent people. This war of aggression further confirms a persistent pattern of contempt for international law and demonstrates that the conduct of the United States itself constitutes a real and ongoing threat to regional and international peace and security. The normalization or toleration of such criminal acts would severely undermine the very foundations of the international legal order upon which the United Nations is built.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has initiated, in full compliance with its rights under international law, the pursuit of all available legal, political, and judicial avenues--at both the national and international levels to ensure full accountability for all perpetrators, organizers, and accomplices of these grave and unlawful acts of aggression and terrorism.

I should be grateful if you would have the present letter circulated as an official document of the Security Council.

Please accept, Excellencies, the assurances of my highest consideration./tasnim