Saudi man celebrates New Year with Soleimani party

Cairo: A Saudi man allegedly threw a New Year party to also celebrate the killing of Iran’s regional military strategist Qassem Soleimani in a US airstrike in Iraq on Friday.

A video went viral online of a man identified as a Saudi national cutting a cake decorated with photos of Soleimani and Abu Mohadi Al Muhandis, a senior Iraqi pro-Iran militiaman killed in the same strike near Baghdad airport, Saudi newspaper Al Marsad Online reported.

The photos appear inside the year 2020 with a caption below reading “Now Happy New Year”.

The man whose face does not appear in the footage is heard saying as he knives the photos of Al Muhandis and Soleimani: “Now this [Al Mohandes] wants to come to Riyadh. And this [ slicing Soleimani] is for the sake of our Syrian and Iraqi brothers. Bon appetite!”

Soleimani was the chief of Iran’s self-styled Quds Force linked to the Revolutionary Guard. He was notorious for involvement in a series of atrocities perpetrated by forces of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.

Soleimani frequently visited Syria and Iraq where Iran wields influence.