To Athens and Sparta, Xerxes sent no heralds to demand earth, and this he did for the following reason. When Darius had previously sent men with this same purpose, those who made the request were cast at the one city into the Pit and at the other into a well, and told to obtain their earth and water for the king from there.— Herodotos 7.133.1
Iraq's Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi has claimed that the recently-assassinated Iranian general was due to deliver Tehran's reply to a previous Saudi message regarding de-escalation talks between Tehran and Riyadh.FRN doesn't source the above claim.
Speaking to Iraqi lawmakers on Sunday, Abdul Mahdi said that he had planned to meet Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps's elite Quds Force head Qasem Soleimani at 8:30 am local time on Friday before the US military killed the general several hours earlier.
The Iraqi Prime Minister's remarks come amid Baghdad's efforts to mediate talks between Tehran and Riyadh in the face of increasing regional tensions.
Regarding point #7, here are the details:
- Washington has failed to shake Iraq's relations with its strategic ally Iran
- Iran is a strategic ally that stood with Iraq in the most difficult of times
- the blood of General Soleimani and the leader al-Muhandis foiled all the American plans against Iraq
- not one day have we felt any reassurance towards American behavior in Iraq
- the American aggression against the PMU on the borders signaled the beginning of the war on the resistance
- we will wage a war against the American military presence at every point in the region that is within our reach
- the pain that we will cause the United States will be equal to the (value of the) blood of our martyrs
- the high-level leaders of the Iraqi resistance are preparing to meet to form a united front against the American presence in the region
- the leaders of the Iraqi resistance will gather today or tomorrow to announce a united front against the US (military) presence
- we are ready to fight the United States and the martyrdom of some of us will not change any of the existing equations
Days before Soleimani was targeted, US senior military officials reportedly offered to Trump the option of killing him. The Washington Post broke the news on Saturday, citing sources, that top Pentagon officials were "stunned" when the US president picked the most extreme option as a response to recent Iranian-led violence in Iraq.Idiot Pompeo reportedly was instrumental in pushing for the assassination:
According to the media report, senior military officials did not think Trump would take it, citing a practice reportedly introduced after the 11 September 2001 attacks which enables the US Department of Defence to offer improbable options to presidents just to make other more peaceful scenarios appear more palatable.
Trump reportedly became infuriated with media images showing Iranian-backed attacks on the American embassy in Baghdad, The Washington Post said, citing sources. The aggressive protest - which came as a response to the US strike against Kataib Hezbollah's forces killing about two dozen of its fighters - triggered the extreme option.
Senior US officials said, cited by the media outlet, that Trump authorized the assassination of Soleimani despite dispute in the administration about the significance of received intelligence warning of alleged threats to American assets in the Middle East.
US officials were reportedly divided, as some sources claimed that Soleimani had allegedly completed a tour - checking his proxy forces in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq - and was planning an attack that could claim hundreds of lives, according to The Washington Post. Others reportedly doubted a direct strike against Soleimani as other intelligence indicated that the top Iranian general's recent traveling amounted to "business as usual".
On 29 December, Pompeo, Esper and Milley reportedly traveled to the president's private club in Florida, where the two defense officials offered possible option responses to Iranian aggression, including the targeted killing of Soleimani, senior US officials said.U.S. forces claim Iran's missile forces are at a heightened state of alert.
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Trump's decision to approve the killing of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) Al Quds commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani was the culmination of determined urging by Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence, the officials are cited as saying on condition of anonymity.
A significant factor cited was the "lockstep" coordination for the operation between Pompeo and Esper, both graduates in the same class at the US Military Academy, who deliberated ahead of the briefing with Trump.
Pence was claimed to have also endorsed the decision, while not attending the meeting in Florida.
"Taking out Soleimani would not have happened under [former secretary of defense Jim] Mattis. Mattis was opposed to all of this. It's not a hit on Mattis, it's just his predisposition. Milley and Esper are different. Now you've got a cohesive national security team and you've got a secretary of state and defense secretary who've known each other their whole adult lives," the official is quoted as saying.
Pompeo reportedly first spoke with Donald Trump about killing Soleimani months ago, when the US President declined to retaliate militarily against Iran after the downing of a US surveillance drone that Tehran claimed violated its airspace - a fact Washington had denied. Tensions between Iran and the United States nearly escalated into a dangerous direct confrontation as President Donald Trump approved airstrikes against Tehran following the incident, but abruptly backtracked on his decision.
The Trump administration attempted to thwart the efforts of the Iraqi parliament to expel foreign military forces from the country in the wake of the killing of a top Iranian military commander and an Iraqi militia leader by US forces inside Iraqi territories, Axios reported on Sunday, citing two unnamed US officials and an Iraqi official.One way or another, the Americans will get out of Iraq eventually. The Axis of Resistance is vowing to force them out. Here's Nasrallah's speech. And here's Soleimani's successor Qaani: "We promise to continue martyr Soleimani's path with the same force... and the only compensation for us would be to remove America from the region." And Sheikh Qais al-Khazali, leader of the Asaib Ahl al-Haqq movement, a key faction of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Unit:
The three officials told Axios that the Trump administration tried to convince the Iraqi government to block its parliament from passing the resolution, which will force the US military out of Iraq. One US official reportedly said that the exit of US troops from the country would "be catastrophic for Iraq".
"It's our concern that Iraq would take a short-term decision that would have catastrophic long-term implications for the country and its security. But it's also what would happen to them financially if they allowed Iran to take advantage of their economy to such an extent that they would fall under the sanctions that are on Iran," the official reportedly said. "We don't want to see that. We're trying very hard to work to have that not happen."
Axios also cited an unnamed senior Iraqi official who claimed that many Kurdish and Sunni members of the Iraqi parliament, who are supporting the US presence in Iraq, did not attend the parliament vote on expelling all foreign military forces, including US-led international coalition, from Iraqi territories.
"This is a temporary victory for the parties which are pro-Iranian, but it's also a clear message from the Sunnis and from the Kurds [who didn't vote] and from some Iraqi Shia, for the Americans to tell them we want you to stay in Iraq," the Iraqi official said, according to the website.
The Iraqi government is reportedly already at work on implementing Parliament's decision:
- We will take revenge for Hajj Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and his companions and we will not accept anything less than the expulsion of US forces from Iraq
- the Iraqi parliament decision today is one of the most important decisions it has taken throughout its history
- We tell the Americans that Trump is an idiot who will cause nothing but further death and casualties for American soldiers
- The US forces must leave (Iraq) immediately, and if they begin to stall, we will consider them as occupation forces and act towards them based on this
- The Israeli project will never rest until it engulfs Iraq in flames and civil infighting
The Iraqi government has begun working on steps to implement the parliament's decision on the expulsion of foreign forces from the country, the press service of Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi said in a statement, as regional tensions are rising in the wake of the assassination of Iranian general by the United States in Baghdad.They've already limited the movement of American forces in the country:
"Iraqi specialists from various agencies are drafting a document on further legal and procedural actions to implement the parliament's decision to remove foreign troops [from Iraq]," the prime minister said during his conversation with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian, as quoted in the statement on Sunday.
Abdul-Karim Khalaf, a security spokesman for Iraq's prime minister ... said that the US-led international coalition will be allowed to consult, arm and train Iraqi military personnel and security forces, but the troops will be removed. Khalaf added that the Iraqi government had limited the movements of foreign forces on the ground and in the air.Before the parliamentary vote, PM Mahdi apparently revealed some interesting pieces of information:
The process kick-started a day after Iraqi lawmakers adopted a motion requiring the government to end the presence of foreign troops from the country. There has been no word from the government on whether it ratified the resolution.
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Abdul-Karim Khalaf called that strike, which hadn't been agreed with Iraq in advance, a "stupidity [that] is impossible to keep silent about." The Iraqi foreign ministry on Sunday summoned the US ambassador to condemn the strike as a "blatant violation of Iraqi sovereignty."
See also:That is, in other words, Suleymani carried out some important diplomatic mission between Tehran, Riyadh, Damascus and Baghdad when the States killed him. This makes the situation even more difficult. Now everything looks like the United States wanted to ruin the hell out of possible peace talks between regional players.
- He said that the United States allowed Israel to inflict several illegal air strikes on the munitions depots of the Iraqi armed forces last year. Israel and the US have denied this information.
- He informed the deputies that US aviation was illegally taken into the air, and flew over the American embassy on December 31 without the permission of the Iraqi government.
- He stated that he was trying to reconcile the USA and Iran after the US air strike on a military base of pro-Iranian forces in the west of the country on December 30, when 25 people died. According to him, the States refused to even give an informal apology to the Iranians, and the negotiations fell apart.
- He said that it was the leadership of the "Popular Mobilization Force" together with the killed on the eve of Abu Magdi Al-Mugandes at the cost of the threat of his resignation and the entire Cabinet of Ministers forced the protesters under the US embassy to go home and end his siege. I wrote about this earlier, and now it has officially sounded from the lips of the Iraqi prime minister.
- He also said that Kassem Suleimani arrived in Baghdad and brought with him a letter from the Iranian leadership to representatives of Saudi Arabia, with whom he was negotiating a regional reconciliation.
"Iran maintains a robust cyberprogram and can execute cyberattacks against the United States," reads the bulletin, dated January 4.
It added that Tehran maintains a "robust cyberprogram and can execute cyberattacks against the United States."
"Iran is capable, at a minimum, of carrying out attacks with temporary disruptive effects against critical infrastructure in the United States.
"Iran likely views terrorist activities as an option to deter or retaliate against its perceived adversaries," the bulletin said.
Hours later, a group claiming to be hackers from Iran breached the website of a U.S. government agency and posted messages vowing revenge for the killing of Soleimani.
Separately, a leading cybersecurity expert said his firm is warning businesses and government agencies to intensify protection measures following the threats by Iran to seek revenge for the U.S. attack.
"There are opportunities for them to cause real disruption and destruction," John Hultquist, director of intelligence analysis at the cybersecurity firm FireEye, told AP.
"Think not of those who are slain in God's way as dead. Nay, they live, finding their sustenance in the presence of their Lord. They rejoice in the bounty provided by God: And with regard to those left behind, who have not yet joined them (in their bliss), the (Martyrs) glory in the fact that on them is no fear, nor shall they grieve. They glory in the Grace and the bounty from God, and in the fact that God suffereth not the reward of the Faithful to be lost (in the least)." (Quran, 3, 169-171.)Then Nasrallah briefly recalls the identity of the martyrs.]
Comment: And U.S. miscalculation still plays into Soleimani's hands, despite his death. Groups previously at odds in Iraq are united. The PMU are reforming and uniting. The Iraqis have voted to kick out the Americans.
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