Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley on Saturday described being sanctioned by the theocratic Iranian regime as a “badge of honor” — as Iranian officials slapped sanctions on more than 50 current and former U.S. officials over the 2019 strike that killed former Quds leader Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
“When you get sanctioned by Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror, you know you’re doing something right,” Haley tweeted with the hashtag #BadgeOfHonor.
Haley has long been a vocal critic of the Iranian regime and was a key member of the Trump administration when it pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018.
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According to UPI, Haley’s name was on the list of 51 officials sanctioned by Tehran, including Gen. Mark Milley, former National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien and former National Security Adviser to Mike Pence, Keith Kellogg. It adds them to previously sanctioned officials like former President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
A statement by the Iranian Foreign Ministry said the officials were sanctioned “for the role they played in the terrorist act of the United States against Martyr General [Qassem] Soleimani and his companions, in glorification of terrorism and in violating the fundamental human rights.”
“The said persons, as the case may be, have taken part in decision-making, organizing, financing, and carrying out the terrorist act or have otherwise justified terrorism which is a threat to the international peace and security through supporting such egregious terrorist attack,” the statement said.
Kellogg too was not bothered by his name being on the list.
“Whelp…saw the whole list and those sanctioned earlier. Not a bad group to be with, not too bad at all,” he tweeted.
The sanctions come in a week where the regime marked the two-year anniversary of the strike that took out Soleimani. Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Forces, was killed in the Jan. 3 U.S. strike in Baghdad, days after Iranian-backed militia supporters stormed the U.S. embassy in Iraq.
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Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani, who replaced Soleimani, promised to avenge the general’s death this week, saying that the “ground for the hard revenge” will come from “within” the homes of Americans.
“This revenge has begun,” Ghaani added. “Americans will be uprooted from the region.”
Also this week, the Iranian regime unveiled a statue to honor Soleimani, but within hours it had been torched by anti-regime activists.
Fox News’ Peter Aitken contributed to this report.