Stella Calloni
The assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, recognized as a national hero both in his country and in his region, through a brutal terrorist attack ordered by US President Donald Trump at the suggestion of his personal “advisors”, shocked the world at the beginning of this complex year, marked by great popular rebellions in different places and especially in Latin America, where he ended 2019 with a coup d’état in Bolivia, prepared, advised and financed by the US government.
Along with Soleimani, head of the Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, Iraqi military commander and leader of the People’s Mobilization Forces, and 10 other important figures from both countries, were assassinated. It was a terrorist attack, which constituted an act of crude provocation, encouraged by Israel whose name is mentioned in very few analyses, although it is crucial in this case, violating Iraqi sovereignty in the knowledge that Soleimani, as a high official of the Iranian State, had diplomatic immunity, in accordance with the anti-terrorist treaties signed by the United States.
It was also a declaration of war, which authorizes Iran to appeal to the United Nations since this type of crime violates international law according to the special rapporteur of the international body on Selective Killings and Extrajudicial Executions, Agnes Callamand, who maintained that they are also outside the context of active hostilities.
The use of drones and any other means to kill people and particularly senior leaders and government officials in what is described as “collective killings” is illegal, and the perpetrators and those who commanded the action must be tried and brought before international institutions.
Beloved by his people, who demonstrated throughout Iran this Saturday and Sunday, Soleimani has enormous prestige and especially in recent times because of his fight against the Islamist terrorists who are actually mercenaries from various countries of the world hired by the North Atlantic Organization (NATO), which has extensive experience in this type with these kinds of actors. In the 1970s NATO armed the secret armies of terrorists who intervened in the so-called “Operation Gladio” in Italy, and under various names in other European countries, resulting in thousands of victims of attacks, in their aim to “exterminate” the left, in the scheme of the “Cold War”.
What Trump has done now energizes the advance of the supposed “war against terrorism, infinite and without borders” declared unilaterally by former President George W. Bush in September 2001, which has had enormous fluctuations and failures, further enraging the hegemonic power which is visibly decadent and unmasked before humanity.
The Iranian general had inflicted a great defeat on the actual terrorism of the mercenaries who spread terror under the orders of the special forces of the United States, Great Britain, Israel and others, under the command of NATO in their colonial wars of the 21st century, invading and occupying nations.
Trump, who made the decision to assassinate Soleimani, has written in the last few hours that this should serve as a warning, that if Iran attacks any American or American targets, we have 52 Iranian sites in our sights (representing the 52 American hostages captured by Iran many years ago), some of very high level and importance to Iran and Iranian culture, and it will be very quick and very hard (…)
It should also be remembered that the attack took place after weeks of protests by the Iraqi people, demanding the departure of the troops and mercenaries whom the United States curiously calls “contractors”, who have remained there since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
An invasion carried out under false arguments that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, which was confirmed to be false after the genocide and the destruction of the country took place, together with a prolonged period of human rights violations, the creation of secret prisons, mass murders, abhorrent tortures, thousands of victims, condemning a dignified people to misery and begging. A country that has suffered colonial occupation in this century,
Moreover, under NATO command, these countries have stolen great cultural riches and destroyed world heritage sites. The Iraqi people, who are still under the aggression of foreign troops, have not forgotten the crimes committed during this invasion, any more than they will in Afghanistan, Libya, Syria or Yemen.
The Iraqi people have every right to fight for the departure of these troops from their territory, as was understood by the Iraqi parliament this Sunday, January 5, when it decided to expel the foreign troops from their country, outraged by the occupiers who have violated their sovereignty.
The argument that Soleimani “was preparing to kill Americans” is as false as that of the weapons of mass destruction that did not exist in Iraq. There is no proof, only “presumptions. The Iranian military had been invited by the legitimate president of Syria, Bashar Al Assad, just as he invited the Russian Federation, when he discovered that the United States, Israel and other partners were arming and directing vicious mercenaries disguised as the “Free Syrian Army” and committed aberrant crimes against the population. Now they had also invaded Iraq, which had not only the right but the obligation to defend itself.
In the case of Syria, Donald Trump crossed all limits when he granted Israel the right to remain in the Golan Heights, Syrian territory, as if he owned the world. And also by moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, against all the contrary reaction this produced worldwide.
In the same way, Al Qaeda, which emerged from the Taliban created by the United States in Afghanistan, were sworn enemies of Saddam Hussein, and it was NATO troops who introduced the mercenaries into Iraq and also into Libya, a country that has been devastated and is also in rebellion these days.
The Trump Maze
Moreover, in this scenario, nobody can ignore that Trump is in an electoral campaign and this decision revives the war industry and the hard-line sectors of the empire. On the one hand, this has fulfilled another objective of Israel, the country most interested in erasing Iran from the map. This will not benefit the president who is increasingly acting in the interests of the powerful global Israeli lobby, which is generating unrest in political sectors of the American right itself, as has been reported in some media and documents.
In this regard, it is particularly worth considering the “advisors” chosen by the president who have more influence than his Security and Defense officials, such as he has done on the issue of the Middle East, by appointing his son-in-law Jared Kushner, husband of his daughter Ivanka, son of one of the most powerful members of the Jewish lobby in the United States, who has never before directly influenced the government.
That is the shadow behind the throne, since long ago the Israeli right-wing insists not only on bringing war to Iran, but on the possibility of using nuclear weapons against that country.
On December 30, Trump was visited by the U.S. National Security team at their comfortable retreat in Florida for a meeting where Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Armed Forces, were on hand to brief him on the latest operations by U.S. forces in the Middle East, including the bombings of allegedly Iranian-sponsored “Shiite militias” in Iraq, and to present options. They later expressed surprise that the president ordered the attack on the Iranian general, a decision that would have been “suggested” by the president’s advisers, according to the Los Angeles Times. All the analysts thought of Kushner.
Several U.S. media outlets said that upon learning of the decision there was a strong response from the Pentagon and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) “which worked tirelessly to locate the Persian military man in order to conduct a successful operation”.
If we consider that Israel is the country that has done and continues to do the most intelligence work not only in Arab countries, but also in the Persian nation and elsewhere, and that it has also followed the movements of the murdered Iranian general for a long time, it is impossible to think that they did not actively participate in this attack. A further, but finally effective, one of those who attempted against the high official of Iran.
Only three days later the terrorist attack took place that could lead to an escalation of violence. The world must prepare for the actions that may be taken by the terrorist powers responsible for these events because of their proven ability to carry out false-flag attacks – which are blamed on groups or countries to be used as justification, carried out by their own special forces to escalate the war.
To justify their unjustifiable action, Trump officials like Pompeo said that there was “irrefutable” information that Soleimani was preparing violent actions, “attacks that would have killed hundreds or thousands of Americans. We brought together our best and brightest experts, found an opportunity and brought this guy down”.
Whose “irrefutable information” could it be? The one who knew in advance about Trump’s order and openly celebrated the criminal success of the attack was the man who has sown the most hatred for Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who mentioned that the United States has as much right as Israel to “defend itself,” as if this crime were an act of defense. Or as if the extermination of the Palestinian people had any justification.
The consequences of this brutal act are limitless, and even more so if one considers that Iran is a country with a strategic geographical position, which is undoubtedly why Israel has been the most interested for years in destroying this nation with deep cultural roots and strong influence in the region and in the world.
Trump’s exaggerated response to appear as the “savior” of his country in the face of “deficient democrats” like Barack Obama, whom he sardonically mocked, and other important opposition figures, while it may attract more votes from hardliners, in the midst of the crisis over the impeachment trial he is being subjected to, also encounters a counter-reaction in much of the world and in governments that have begun to express their weariness, in the face of the due obedience demanded of them by the declining imperial power.
The large marches in the U.S. to reject this crime, the warnings given by intellectuals and important figures in culture, art, and youth, are beginning to resemble the rebellion of thousands of Americans against the Vietnam War in the 1970s.
Analyses by various international experts suggest that neither side wants war; neither has anything to gain as Heiko Wimmen, Crisis Group’s head for Syria, Lebanon and Iran, has argued, while warning of the danger of a head-on collision, waiting for the other to back down. If neither of us does, it could end in disaster”.
For many, Iraq will again become the first battleground in that region. Trump has talked about sending an estimated 3,500 troops to Iraq, which would increase the U.S. contingent there when the Iraqi people are demanding that they leave.
In this scenario we are walking on the edge of the abyss, although most serious analysts remind us of the tremendous responsibility with which the Iranian government has been confronting in recent years, through intelligence and diplomacy, when the United States and Israel have tried to provoke an excessive reaction. The truth is that a match has been thrown on a dry meadow and there is no one who can predict at this hour the magnitude of the fire.
