The U.S. Special Representative for Iran, Brian Hook, warned that if Qassem Soleimani’s replacement as head of the IRGC Qods Force “follows a similar path of killing Americans he will meet the same fate”. He went on to assert that “we will hold the regime and its proxies accountable for any attacks on Americans, or on American interests in the region”. Hook also argued that “we already have changed the behaviour of the regime by denying them the money they need to execute attacks, and by denying their proxies many of their operations because we have enhanced our troop presence. We have enhanced our intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance. We have now an international maritime force patrolling the waters in the Strait of Hormuz… Iran is not able to get away with the kind of terrorist attacks that they used to”. “The regime has never been weaker financially in its 40-year history, and it has never been under more domestic political unrest than it is now”, Hook posited. “We’re going to continue to stand with the Iranian people”.