Syria awarded Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani its highest military honor on Monday while Iranian student protesters took to the streets to tear down posters set up in his memory. Soleimani was killed in a U.S. airstrike outside Iraq’s Baghdad International Airport on Jan. 2.
Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis announced that President Bashar Assad had awarded Soleimani the medal while meeting with Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri in Tehran. “Awarding this medal reveals the Syrian president’s deep affection for Gen. Soleimani and for his brothers in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Khamis said, according to Iran’s Tasnim News.
The medal was not named in the news article but was described as Syria’s “top medal of honor.”
Meanwhile, protesters walked the streets of Iran, chanting anti-government statements and claiming Soleimani was no hero.
“Soleimani was a murderer, his leader is, too,” protesters chanted, referring to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
?Here is Iran.
Iranian protesters tear photos of Qassem Soleimani. This is the real voice of the Iranian people.#IranProtests #IranProtests2020 pic.twitter.com/5fQgi7CjPW
— Mohammad Mozafari (@mohmd_mozafari) January 12, 2020
The posthumous award from Syria was predictable, one Iran-watcher said.
“No surprise that an Iranian client state would do this, and no surprise of course that Assad would do it,” former intelligence officer Michael Pregent told the Washington Examiner. Giving Soleimani the award is “slapping the face” of the hundreds of thousands of people who have died in the Syrian civil war, Pregent said.
Another video shows Iranians tearing down #Soleimani poster. You know why?
78 people killed in an stampede in his funeral, 178 people killed in exacting his revenge by downing #UkrainianPlane & 1500 killed by IRGC in #IranProtests . People are furious when you call him a hero. pic.twitter.com/2COgVHpsNV— Masih Alinejad ?️ (@AlinejadMasih) January 12, 2020
As head of Iran’s Quds Force, Soleimani directed covert operations across the Middle East. More than 600 U.S. troops died due to Iranian support of insurgents in Iraq, according to the Department of Defense. Additionally, Iran is credited with helping save Assad, a key ally, by providing troops, weapons, and training to his regime as it continues to fight a civil war.
