Tugendhat, a former security minister, has claimed that the assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani in 2020 set in motion a chain of events in the Middle East that ultimately led to the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria last month.

The controversial comment, made shortly before the fifth anniversary of Gen. Soleimani’s assassination in a US drone strike in Baghdad, was widely seen as a tacit endorsement of an act of extrajudicial killing as well as an illegal military strike on a sovereign nation.

“It’s absolutely unlawful and immoral to endorse arbitrary killing & assassination,” the Iranian embassy said in a statement posted on X on Monday. “It’s extremely reckless to call for war & aggression against a UN member State.”

“Only an ignorant & irresponsible person with a troubled background can be so low as to approve lawlessness, incite violence and suggest attacking another nation,” it added.

Tugendhat is known for his strong support of the anti-Iran Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) organization and has actively lobbied for designating the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.

As commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, Gen. Soleimani played an instrumental role in the fight against terrorism in Iraq and Syria.