On Thursday night, the US assassinated top Iranian Gen. Qassam Soleimani in a drone strike at Baghdad International Airport. His arrival was actually part of ongoing diplomatic efforts, according to Iraqi PM Adel Abdul-Mahdi.
Soleimani’s visit was related to well-documented Saudi attempts at diplomacy to ease tensions with Iran. The Saudis had dispatched a message of peace to Iran, with Iraq acting as an intermediary. Soleimani was coming to Iraq to deliver the Iranian government’s reply.
The US assassination, then, undercut the peace effort to an enormous level. Iraq was keen to facilitate peace between its two neighbors, hopefully to calm down US threats against Iran. Instead, the US undercut the entire process.
It’s not clear this totally ends the Saudi effort for peace, though it may be difficult for Iran to safely get messengers into Baghdad in the near future, with the US rather openly threatening more assassinations. Since peace overtures were the Saudi “plan B” after the US didn’t attack Iran, they may no longer bother, given the rapidly escalating military tensions.
Nice work DONALD.
How does it feel to take it from Netanyahu on one side while servicing Adelson on the other? The ZioNazi Chomo Empire has exactly the leader it deserves.
Enjoy.
There are number of things that do not add up.
Why has Saudi Arabia invited Russia to investigate bombing of Saudi oil facilities?
It in plain language this invitation says: we Saudi Arabia do not believe US assessment thar Iran was responsible. Neither did UAE accept stories on tanker sabotage. Opening Saudi Embassy in Baghdad was a venue for communicating with Iran, UAE opened another channel by opening Embassy in Damascus.
However US rhetoric is getting more outrageous by the day. By today, we are led to believe that Uranian General was part of USIS laying down IED that maimed and killed Americans. You would not believe that this is a person responsible for getting ISIS beat in Iraq.
It is really up to Gulf countries to get their act together and cut a deal with Iran. Before more troops arrive, and more war making moves take place.
Some members of the KSA royal family apparently realize that if the US can’t protect them from the Houthis, they would be devastated in a war with Iran. KSA is apparently reassessing its dependence on Washington and its detente with Israel.
It must also be looking at a false flag attack by Israel. That would be my first suspicion in all this.
Wow!! Maybe the intel Trump/Pompeo & Pence got was that Saudi’s were cozying up to Iran. That would ruin all their plans of having a Saudi – Iran war so that Israel would just look on. There is however a possibility General Soleimani was set up by the Saudis.
NPR reported that Iraqi PM said Solemani was lured out by the US after Trump conversation, to be slain. @NPR Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi said President Trump called him to ask for help in mediating with Iran after the U.S. embassy in Baghdad
was attacked. https://www.npr.org/2020/01/05/793746580/iraqi-parliament-votes-to-expel-u-s-troops-from-country-in-wake-of-soleimani-str
If so then definitely it may be say easily that mission i.e. Saudi’s requirement for an Irani reply was just a trap to kill Solaimani.
It seems KSA and UAE are reevaluating their subservience to the USA and Israel. MBS led KSA to an embarrassing defeat in Syria, his attempt to isolate Qatar failed, the Yemen adventure was a disaster for the Kingdom and the Khashoogi affair made KSA an international pariah. The Saudi oligarchs are evil. But they are not suicidal. They want their monarchy to survive. The Saudis looked to the USA to bail them out of Yemen after the Houthis bombed their biggest oilfield and captured thousands of KSA’s surrogate troops.. But the USA did nothing except blame Iran. Some members of the House of Saud are smart enough to realize the USA and Israel are manipulating them into a war with Iran that would devastate KSA and likely topple the monarchy. For 40 years the Iranian regime has sought détente with KSA and the other Sunni sheikdoms. Iran’s foreign policy is based on uncompromising anti-Zionism and a recognition that the USA is a surrogate for Israel in the ME and therefore Iran’s main adversary. But Iran’s only permanent enemy is Zionist Israel.
The price of detente with Iran would be no more than easing the restrictions on the Saudi Shiites who comprise no more than 10-15% of KSA’s citizens. The faction of the ruling family that appears to be influencing King Salman apparently recognizes that the price of détente with Israel and alliance with the USA will be war with Iran which the monarchy could not survive.
I am not sure if MBS has learned from his disastrous mistakes or if he has been sidelined. But there has been a shift in Saudi policy in the past few months away from complete dependence on the USA. The Saudis have asked Russia, not the USA , to investigate the Houthi attack on their oilfield.
Based on Trump’s racism, his bellicosity, his impetuousness and his delusional narcissism I believe Trump made a snap decision a few days ago to murder Soleimani without consulting allies or most of his advisers.
That is a reasonable thing to consider. However, Solaimani often traveled quite openly, quite extensively, and often in Iraq. It was not necessary to “lure him out” just to pick a moment.
Presumably the US regime had numerous opportunities to kill Soleimani, including at times and in places where he would have been just another battlefield casualty. Had he died in Syria, his killing would have been not just routine, but plausibly deniable as to the nationality of his killers.
The fact that he was killed in Iraq, with Iraqi military personnel, and the likelihood that he was there on some kind of diplomatic initiative vis a vis Iran and Saudi Arabia, implies some kind of specific political motive, such as elevating — or at least preventing a reduction in — hostility between Iran and Iraq and/or Saudi Arabia. And if the US was behind, or involved in coordinating, that initiative in the first place (as Iraq’s PM seems to be saying), that would constitute the “luring” part.
Forget about a war with Iran it won’t happen. Iran is not Iraq. The logistics by sea will be sunk before they reach anywhere near the ports and the strait of Hormuz will be closed when the first US missile is in the air.
US is now thanks to Trump at war with both Iran and Iraq remember? It’s irreversible. The Pentagram may be at odds with that but it is now a fact. US position is untenable it will leave on its own accord or be “assisted” to do so at a cost and a number of body bags never seen before. What US and Saudi Barbaria can and probably will do is to unleash another wave of ISIS cutthroats. But Iraq can handle that and Iran and Russia is there to prevent it.
I can appreciate the sentiment, but the 82nd AB was deployed to the theater silently right before the assassination. The Red Flag has been raised.
There’s a storm coming.
Yada yada. I can understand the USA USA USA, the flag waving, the flying saucers and the independence parades and even the chest thumping you guys usually are engaged in whenever Israel call you to embark on yet another bloody war for them, but those troops is not nearly enough to occupy Iran It’ll take all there is and then some and the American fascist regime hasn’t won a war for as long as anyone alive can remember. The entire region is now united, boiling and about to explode in hate and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.
Hence the panicking in the white house and think tank land.
I don’t think you understand.
This may help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05klG-PTKqo
You have a valid point here, Nikki. We can forget about a war with Iran .. It just won’t happen. Why? Iran isn’t Iraq. It’s population’s at 80 million, and the logistics by sea will surely be sunk before they reach anywhere near the ports and the Strait of Hormuz will be closed when the 1st missile’s in the air,
US is now – thanks to DJT – at war with both Iran and Iraq, remember? These 2 countries are now allies, thanks to US hubris and stupidity .. Thus, it’s irreversible. Yes, the Pentagram may be at odds with that, but it’s now a fact. US position’s untenable .. it’ll leave on its own accord or be “assisted” to do so at a cost and a number of body bags never seen before. I agree that what the US and Saudi Arabia can and probably will do is to unleash another wave of ISIS (Israeli Secret Intelligence Service) cutthroats .. But Iraq can handle that – it’s done so before – and Iran and Russia are there to prevent it.
Much better. Thanks.
The US murdered an envoy, (General ) they had an agreement with him to deliver Irans respons to the Saudi peace proposal for yemen.
The general was on his way to the Iraqi PM…..it was official.
The Iraqi PM was informed by the US min. before the attack on the convoy, and he said no, the US did it anyway and murdered 5 Iranian and 5 Iraqi.
Right after the attack the US and the MSM lied about the General, that he was an imminent threat, he was a Hitler and was about to attack americans.
The US has sunken so low, killing an envoy and thereafter smear him.
When even this site spends so little space and cover for such a criminal act,it shows that the americans dont know right from wrong.
Americans only know war……peace is apparently to painful.
Already yesterday i put this comment on this site…….without almost no respons.
On January 5, Iraqi Prime MinisterAdil Abdul-Mahdi reportedly provided additional details into the US assassination of the commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Qods Force, Qassem Soleimani. According to the available data, the Iranian commander arrived in Baghdad under an official request from Iraq. He was set to receive de-escalation proposals that Saudi Arabia sent to Iran via Iraq. US President Donald Trump allegedly supported this idea during a phone call with the Iraqi Prime Minister.
The US supposedly used this peace initiative to set a trap for the Iranian military commander and assassinate him.
Trump &co assassinated an envoy at the airport.
https://southfront.org/iraqi-prime-minister-soleimani-arrived-in-baghdad-to-receive-de-escalation-proposal-from-saudi-arabia-trump-supported-initiative/#comment-4747007220
I’m with you; this site has spent a lot of ink in the last few years defending Trump and pumping the “Russian interference is a deep state hoax” conspiracy theory. They made the mistake of becoming advocates for Trump because they have been so heavily invested, long before Trump, in opposing a group they see as his enemy (the American state intelligence apparatus).
What Antiwar has done, and what has disappointed me for years, is their failure to realize that a mutual enemy doesn’t make a good guy. The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend.
Now that Trump has proven, once and for all, that all of us who said that he was not precisely a great leader for peace, this site is going to have to go through a bit of a painful conceptual shift.
I agree, spot on…..and sharp.
“this site has spent a lot of ink in the last few years defending Trump …. They made the mistake of becoming advocates for Trump”
Incorrect. Some authors at Antiwar.com have defended/advocated for Trump. Other authors have not. Support for Trump is not now and never has been the site’s line. It’s been one of a variety of perspectives that the site has published.
This is a lame and pseudo Antiwar site.
it reports poorly, its staff is weird.
The links in the article are mostly to other MSM…and not to other alternative and independent writers and sites.
And yet you’re always here …
you’r comment is so typical you. you might as well work at Blomberg, CBS, MSMBC, WP, NJT, FT, FOX.
i`m here not because of you, you give nothing….except frustrating a lot of people.
i`m here because of likeminded.
Point taken. I could not claim to have seen this as an editorial position of the site.
I don’t see it. I know I wouldn’t be here if this place was pro-Trump. A couple of he authors continue to cling to the hope that Trump will change but even their articles are interspersed with comments about Trump that I wouldn’t consider flattery. I think the misconception arose because of Justin’s undying loyalty toward Trump and him being the heart and soul of this site.
Justin’s goal, was to build antiwar faction within the GOP (see antiwar.com mission statement). Part of his editorial style was to focus on democratic party failures, and to decry “liberalism” wherever he could. Only rarely, and in passing would he pin anything on the gop, obviously, because he hoped his mission would succeed. He did this to keep right wingers placated, and coming back.
Too bad he is not around to see the action being taken by the conservative vet group in the midwest. Course, that group too, is treating trump with kid gloves.
Taking Mr. Knapp’s point, it’s not site-wide; but here’s an example of a writer completely aligning with the pro-Trump narrative that there is a deep state conspiracy of FBI and CIA operatives who have been working since before Trump was elected to illegally spy on his campaign and undermine his presidency:
https://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2019/12/10/barr-blasts-inspector-general-for-whitewashing-fbi/
Ray McGovern is not on the editorial staff. Nor is he pro-trump. Russiagate certainly fostered lunacy, much like trump himself. Tough to pick a side, or the truth, between US intelligence elements, or the gop and their rummy.
It is entirely possible to reject the “Russiagate” nonsense while still opposing Trump.
You make the claim that Antiwar is not pro-Trump- and yet you, an editorial representative of the site, refer to “the Russiagate nonsense.”
Meuller found hundreds of contacts with Russians, where all other campaigns had zero. Meuller very specifically did not exonerate Trump; instead, he said that he could not. And he said that he was unable to come to a conclusion because subjects of the investigation hid or destroyed evidence. And Meuller did not “follow the money”; he never investigated Trump’s financial exposure to Russia and Russian oligarchs. He never saw Trump’s tax returns or his company’s financial records, which would have allowed him to prove or disprove the question of whether Trump is in hock to Putin. Why? Because Trump took legal action on many fronts – as well as issuing some pretty pointed threats – to prevent him from doing so.
The Russia angle, therefore, is far from nonsense. Unproven, yes. But still very much an open question.
Dismissing Trump’s Russia connections while using Trump talking points is the very definition of pro-Trump.
What the Mueller probe established is that yes, the Trump campaign attempted to get “dirt” on Hillary Clinton from Russian sources.
Just like the Clinton campaign — operating through two cut-outs between it and Christopher Steel — attempted to get “dirt” on Donald Trump from Russian sources.
I don’t “dismiss” Trump’s “Russia connections.” I also don’t buy evidenceless claims concerning those “connections.”
I voted against Trump in 2016. If I vote in 2020, I will also vote against Trump. I support impeaching Trump for numerous constitutional violations. That doesn’t mean I have to pretend that everyone who disagrees with me is a Russian asset.
And I’m not an “editorial representative of the site.” I’m a comments moderator for the site.
The link is being blocked.
https://southfront.org/iraqi-prime-minister-soleimani-arrived-in-baghdad-to-receive-de-escalation-proposal-from-saudi-arabia-trump-supported-initiative/#comment-4747007220
Thanks. I got it to come up this time. Very interesting.
🙂
This information about Sulemani coming for peace was reported by NPR and CNN and with the full blessings and involvement of USA.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/5/1909525/-Trump-assassinated-man-brokering-peace-reduced-tension-in-Persian-Gulf
jane arraf
✔
@janearraf
This is stunning – #Iraq prime minister tells parliament US troops should leave. Says @realDonaldTrump called him to ask him to mediate with #Iran and then ordered drone strike on Soleimani. Says Soleimani carrying response to Saudi initiative to defuse tension when he was hit.
44.7K
9:05 AM – Jan 5, 2020
“ Arraf is an NPR Middle East Correspondent. Here is information, reporting live from the Iraqi parliamentary debate, from a Washington Post Baghdad bureau reporter:
“I was supposed to meet Soleimani at the morning the day he was killed, he came to deliver me a message from Iran responding to the message we delivered from Saudi to Iran” Iraqi PM said.”
Somewhat like Rabin getting killed by Amir while Rabin was getting ready to speak from the letter he had prepared for the massive pro peace gathering
yes and the far right hailed the killing. Bibi had called him a traitor and with ads indirectly called for the removal of Rabin by all means.
A mission for peace? No wonder he was assassinated by USA.
Here are the usual evangelicals and zionists responsible for the assassination, Pompeo and Pence.
https://theweek.com/speedreads/887689/pompeo-pence-reportedly-pushed-trump-kill-soleimani-pentagon-leaders-stunned-trump-agreed
If this is true, it was a monsterous act!
One of many despicable acts by the collapsing empire of idiots and end of times religious zealots.
Now what warmongering state got this info & got US to sabotage the peace talks?? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7854971/Soleimani-Iraq-discuss-escalating-tensions-Saudis-killed-PM-says.html
And let’s not forget all those MEK infiltrators spying on Iran to help (terrorist friends of US govt) MEK leaders, with US help, take over the Iranian government – not too likely.
The opposite might occur. Like the Iraqis, we may suddenly see the Kuwaitis, the Qataris, and even the Saudis run for cover instead of putting their futures at the whim of Trump. They may reach out to the Iranians and quietly distance themselves from the orange one.
It would be the sensible thing to do, and sometimes, people do sensible things.
Mark my words. The Saudis were involved in this. Trump didn’t do this by himself. He acted in concert with Saudi Arabia and possibly Israel.
Nothing the banker controlled US war machine hates more than a peace maker.
There can be no doubt that Trump and the neocons deliberately undercut this peace process, however meager the process may have been. They *had* to have known why the general was in Iraq. It was an official visit known to everyone in the Iraqi government – and therefore to the US.
Whether the Saudi peace effort was legit or not is irrelevant to the fact that the US was fully aware of why the general was there.
That the US chose to assassinate him in this manner means Trump either 1) did not know what was going on – which makes him lame and utterly out of the loop, or 2) was fully informed and authorized the hit anyway – which makes him fully responsible. 1) is extremely doubtful – a hit like this absolutely requires the President’s direct authorization. Besides which, he has taken responsibility in his tweets – so he owns this.
Let’s not hear any more crap about Trump “not wanting a new Middle East war.” He most definitely does want a war with Iran. He may not want it before the election, but it is now absolutely certain that he does want a war at some point.
There were no Saudi peace efforts. This was a set-up from the start, and the Saudis were in on it.
Soleimani had been accused by the Saudis and by the Obama administration of hiring a Mexican drug cartel to try and assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States while he was in Washington D.C. back in 2011.
The Iranians accused the Saudis and the Israelis of trying to assassinate Soleimani back in October.
That accusation by Saudi and Obama against Souleman was a multilayered ploy of creating anti Iran sentiment and also enlarge war theater .
It was raging anti Iran decade in US,itching to repeat Iraq on Iran ( interesting to notice that same time America was saying sorry for acting on wrong but well intentioned intelligence . Bush was not supported by 16 intelligence agencies and he felt sad disheartened in Israel .
Same time the neoconservative were framing the arguments : How could we believe American intelligence when not long ago they provided us wrong intelligence on Iraq.?
Later when some intelligence fake figures would support Iranian nuclear activities, the unpunished unjailed unashamed unshamed neoconservative would be saying that intelligence agencies had learned their lessons and they had got better savvier expert and skilled after Iraq fiasco. Now the intelligence they were offering was real slam dunk ,lets attack Iran.
The sick bustards would remind poor Americans : what are you waiting for.
Mexico drug cartel was an invention as was Iraqi anthrax and Iraqi WMD More like Iraqi anthrax that was American intelligence operation through Phillip Jack.
“Later when some intelligence fake figures would support Iranian nuclear activities”
The US and Israeli intelligence communities reported that if Iran ever had a nuclear weapons program, that program ended no later than 2004. There was never any “intelligence fake figure” to support the claim that Iran was working on a bomb.
I’m saying Trump didn’t act alone, he acted in concert with the Saudis. If this report is true, it means the Saudi “peace negotations” were a ploy to lure Soleimani into a trap. The Saudis reportedly tried to assassinate him two months ago, and the Saudis publicly accused him of plotting to assassinate their ambassador in Washington DC in 2011. If he was assassinated en route to “peace negotiations” with the Saudis, then it means the Saudis set him up. The Saudis told Trump when and where to call in the drone strike. That’s my point.
This isn’t a case of the United States “undercutting a Saudi peace effort,” it’s a case of the United States and Saudi Arabia acting in concert to assassinate Soleimani. The peace negotiations weren’t sincere, they were a trap.
Interesting theory, and just the kind of thing they would do.
Sunni and Shia dived it’s unacceptable,it’s conflict of interest for Muslims to keeping this dived and still they KEEP murdering each others to keep this division in extreme stupidity and extremely stupid conflict of interest .
There is no end for that,but you tell these vicious power hungry King of Saudi and Ayatullah Khameni.
I have 1 question for the 2 enemies ( because of the religious reasons of Shia and Sunni;
Both of you Saudi and Iran,you hate eacothers to dead because of your religious divisions, if you didn’t believe this Islamic faith probably you would be best of friends.
So,according your holly book says” everyone borne as a Muslim and after newborn parents makes him or her Shia or Sunni ? Or Christian and Hibru?
Christ accepted in holly book and Hibru accepted in holly book.
SO WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?
WHY IS THIS DIVIDE?
Maybe,keeping the political power so wont compromised?
emocratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg believes the U.S. invasion of Iraq was “a mistake,” but doesn’t regret supporting former President George W. Bush’s decision to go to war.
The 2003 invasion came in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and Bloomberg told the Los Angeles Times on Monday that at the time, “America wanted to go to war, but it turns out it was based on faulty intelligence, and it was a mistake. But I think people that made the mistake did it honestly, and it’s a shame, because it’s left us entangled, and it’s left the Middle East in chaos through today.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/michael-bloomberg-says-doesnt-regret-000100210.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYW50aXdhci5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKtbRborTBJt1gM50R21eOMSjVgE_bpynmZBh7pjeJ05r92gAcXkNkzGFwjaPVjoLydzX5MHSHIIT8_HxFfbVoCBA14hHxpa1O0CGFmIKBL4FdTrYvuglBueybRX3gJius2oYEahrIC75jxBP6I9Ne9Wy3-vpsqUl6elInPT_mBW
One day he will say that Soulemani was killed because of faulty intelligence .
Sad part is this Bloomberg never learned that ‘ intelligence was fixed’ He never learned that intelligence was given by Bush cabinet to the intelligence agencies . He never learned that Intelligence Agencies were told and forced to repeat what lies Government had told them to say and repeat.
Bloomberg is a Democratic candidate simply because he’s insanely wealthy and bought his way in, that’s all. He’s a strong supporter of the status quo. No one on the Left besides pundits take him seriously; he’s old white billionaire who pledges to fix the problems in society foisted on us mostly by wealthy old white men. Uh huh.
Message was delivered.
And that message was delivered loud and clear.
donny should be TRIED BY A WORLD COURT. He is a clear and present danger to the planet and should be HUNG. He condones torture? Let him be HUNG for his crimes against humanity. (The ethnic cleansing of our faithful Kurdish allies.)