© AP/Kevin LamarqueUS Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
US President Donald Trump earlier claimed that Washington had eliminated the top Iranian military commander to halt Tehran's plans to blow up the US Embassy in Baghdad.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on a national broadcast that
the United States possessed no information about the date and place of an alleged attack planned by assassinated General Qasem Soleimani.Pompeo still insisted that Soleimani was going to conduct "imminent attacks". Pompeo told Fox News:
"We don't know precisely when - and we don't know precisely where. But it was real ... There was a real opportunity here and there was a real necessity here. We made the right decision. The president made the right call."
On 3 January, IRGC Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani was killed in a targeted US drone attack on the Baghdad International Airport. Washington said that Soleimani was planning to attack US personnel and that by eliminating him "a lot of lives were saved".
The US earlier designated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force a terrorist organisation.
Iran retaliated for the murder of its top commander with a missile attack that targeted the US military in Iraq. The attack was dubbed Operation Martyr Soleimani and hit the Ayn al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq and American facilities in Erbil. No US personnel were injured in the attack President Trump said in his Wednesday address to the nation.
Soleimani was a highly respected figure in Iranian politics and was praised for combating a wide range of terrorist groups in the region, including Daesh*. He was also given credit for being an "architect" of the entire Iranian security structure.
Comment: It isn't a matter of what others believe, know or don't know - it is what they can get the President to say.
From
Sputnik: 10/1/2020 Pompeo is Trump's 'puppet master'; Soleimani was Pompeo's fixation
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been revealed to be the puppet master behind POTUS Trump's motion to liquidate a top Iranian commander, CNN reported citing sources inside and around the White House, with the revelation indicating Pompeo's influential status in the Trump administration.
According to several sources, taking Iranian General Qasem Soleimani - the leader of the elite Quds Force, a powerful military group with vast leverage in the region - "off the battlefield" has been Pompeo's goal for a decade. Pompeo...apparently floated the idea when debating the US Embassy raid over New Year with Trump.
"We took a bad guy off the battlefield", Pompeo told CNN on 5 January. "We made the right decision". The same day, Pompeo told ABC that killing Soleimani was important "because this was a fella who was the glue, who was conducting active plotting against the United States of America, putting American lives at risk".
The sources suggested that the Iranian general was Pompeo's fixation.
Despite winning the moniker of "Trump whisperer" over the ties he has developed with POTUS, Pompeo's ability to sell an aggressive Iran strategy to Trump, who has commonly opposed any military confrontation, has caused a certain sway, the sources implied.
"He's the one leading the way", according to the source in Pompeo's inner circle, discussing the showdown with Iran. "It's the president's policy, but Pompeo has been the leading voice in helping the president craft this policy. There is no doubt Mike is the one leading it in the Cabinet".
Sputnik, 10/1/2020: Americans weigh in: Killing Soleimani made US less safe
The number of Americans who condemn the US president's behaviour towards Iran and consider it "reckless" stands at 52 percent, which exceeds the number of those who think otherwise by nearly two times. 42 percent, approve of the president's decision to kill the Iranian general. 33 percent said they were opposed to the decision, with a quarter of those surveyed remaining undecided. Some 52 percent of respondents claim the attack made it more likely that Iran would proceed to develop nuclear weapons.
RT, 10/1/2020: Pompeo claims Iran 'likely shot down Ukrainian Boeing
US State Secretary Mike Pompeo has accused Iran of the downing of Ukrainian Boeing 737-800 as the US Treasury rolled out new sanctions against Tehran.
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Comment: It isn't a matter of what others believe, know or don't know - it is what they can get the President to say.
From Sputnik: 10/1/2020 Pompeo is Trump's 'puppet master'; Soleimani was Pompeo's fixation Sputnik, 10/1/2020: Americans weigh in: Killing Soleimani made US less safe RT, 10/1/2020: Pompeo claims Iran 'likely shot down Ukrainian Boeing See also: