QASEM SOLEIMANI KILLED TO STOP GLOBAL TERRORISM
TRUMP
Soleimani
The news of the demise of another leader in the Middle East early January, 2020 prompted reactions and counter reactions from world leaders who support or condemn the action of the United States of America. Qasem Soleimani was regarded as a terrorist by the US and to others, he was a regional here. THE TRANSMITTER monitored the late General on Wikipedia and some notable media platforms including CNN, BBC and The New York Times.
Qasem Soleimani was born 11th March, 1957 and died 3rd January 2020. He was an Iranian major general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and, from 1998 until his death in 2020, commander of its Quds Forne, a division primarily responsible for extraterritorial military and clandestine operations. In his later years, he was considered the second most powerful person in Iran behind Ayatollah Khamenei, as well as being his right-hand man.
Soleimani initially worked in construction before joining the Revolutionary Guards in 1979 and assembling and leading a company of men when the Iran–Iraq War began in 1980, rising through the ranks to become commander of the 41st Tharallah Division in his 20s. He was later involved in extraterritorial operations, and in the late 1990s became commander of the Quds Force. Following September 11th, 2001, Iranian diplomats under his direction collaborated with the U.S. to fight the Taliban. Soleimani also provided assistance to Hezbollah in Lebanon. In 2012, Soleimani helped bolster the government of Bashar al-Assad, a key Iranian ally, during Iran’s operations in the Syrian Civil War and helped to plan the Russian military intervention in Syria. Soleimani oversaw the Kurdish and Shia militia forces in Iraq, and assisted the Iraqi forces that advanced against ISIL in 2014–2015. Soleimani was one of the first to support Kurdish forces, providing them with arms.
Soleimani was popular among many Iranians, with many viewing him as a “selfless hero fighting Iran’s enemies”, while others deemed him a “murderer”. Soleimani was personally sanctioned by the United Nations and the European Union and was designated as a terrorist by the United States.
In March 2007, Soleimani was included on a list of Iranian individuals targeted with sanctions in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1747. On 18 May 2011, he was sanctioned again by the U.S. along with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and other senior Syrian officials due to his alleged involvement in providing material support to the Syrian government.
On 24 June 2011, the Official Journal of the European Union said the three Iranian Revolutionary Guard members now subject to sanctions had been “providing equipment and support to help the Syrian government suppress protests in Syria”. The Iranians added to the EU sanctions list were two Revolutionary Guard commanders, Soleimani, Mohammad Ali Jafari, and the Guard’s deputy commander for intelligence, Hossein Taeb. Soleimani was also sanctioned by the Swiss government in September 2011 on the same grounds cited by the European Union
In 2007, the U.S. included him in a “Designation of Iranian Entities and Individuals for Proliferation Activities and Support for Terrorism”, which forbade U.S. citizens from doing business with him. The list, published in the EU’s Official Journal on 24 June 2011, also included a Syrian property firm, an investment fund and two other enterprises accused of funding the Syrian government. The list also included Mohammad Ali Jafari and Hossein Taeb.
On 13 November 2018, the U.S. sanctioned an Iraqi military leader named Shibl Muhsin ‘Ubayd Al-Zaydi and others who allegedly were acting on Soleimani’s behalf in financing military actions in Syria or otherwise providing support for terrorism in the region.
Soleimani was killed on 3 January 2020 around 1:00 a.m. 2 January, by U.S. drone strike near Baghdad International Airport. BBC News, NBC News, DW News, Time, The Guardian and other media outlets have said Soleimani was assassinated or described the killing as an assassination. The New York Times compared it to Operation Vengeance in World War II, when American pilots shot down the plane carrying Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. Soleimani had just left his plane, which arrived in Iraq from Lebanon or Syria. His body was identified using a ring he wore on his finger, with DNA confirmation still pending. CNBC reported that the U.S. had been in pursuit of the general for decades. Also killed were four members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), including Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Iraqi-Iranian military commander who headed the PMF.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mahdi said Soleimani was bringing Iran’s response to a letter that Iraq had sent out on behalf of Saudi Arabia in order to ease tensions between the two countries in the region. The prime minister did not reveal the message. Soleimani was posthumously promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and praised as a martyr by speaker of the Iranian parliament Ali Larijani and Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander of the IRGC. Soleimani was succeeded by Esmail Ghaani as commander of the Quds Force.
Trump had expressed a desire to target Soleimani in a 2017 meeting with then National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. On January 13, 2020, five senior current and former Trump Administration officials told NBC News that Trump had authorized the killing of Soleimani in June 2019 on the condition that he had been involved in the killing of many Americans, a decision backed by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. In making the 2020 strike, the Pentagon focused on Soleimani’s past actions and on deterring future such actions. The strike followed attacks on the American embassy in Baghdad by supporters of an Iran-backed Iraqi Shia militia and the 2019 K-1 Air Base attack.
In an article in the Middle East Institute, former Deputy Defense Secretary for the Middle East Michael Mulroy and retired Navy SEAL Eric Oehlerich state that the targeted killing of Qassem Soleimani was justified and long overdue because he was an enemy combatant who orchestrated a lethal campaign against U.S. military, diplomats and intelligence officers in Iraq. However, they also made the point that the U.S. should of targeted Soleimani’s subordinates to disrupt their operations and that covert authorities should’ve been considered to be able to deny the operation in order to avoid the possibility of an all-out regional war.
Agnès Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killing, “the killings of Qassem Suleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis violates international human rights law.” She said the U.S. is required to confirm “the individual targeted constituted an imminent threat to others.” Callamard also described the killing of other individuals alongside Soleimani as “unlawful and other scholars argue it violates international law.
He was the first man to be honored with a multi-city funeral in the history of Iran and his funeral procession was said to be the second largest after that of Ayatollah Khomeini.
On 7 January 2020, a stampede took place at the burial procession for Soleimani in Kerman attended by hundreds of thousands of mourners, killing 56 and injuring 212 more.
On 8 January 2020, the Iranian military responded to Soleimani’s death by launching ballistic missiles at two U.S. bases in Iraq, resulting in no reported casualties. Iranian officials and some Western media analysts suggested the strike was deliberately designed to avoid causing any casualties to avoid an American response. The Iranian President cautioned the U.S. that Iran will take more retaliatory actions if the U.S. continues to interfere in the region.
