Why Did the U.S. Take Out Iran's Top General?

By Henry Srebrnik, {Saint John, MB] Telegraph Journal
 

Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani was killed in an American drone strike in Baghdad on Jan. 3, sending shockwaves through the Middle East.

Why did U.S. President Donald Trump take what many see as a provocative move? The reasons go back to many years of conflict between Washington and Tehran.

Since 1998 Soleimani had been a major player in this struggle, as the head of the Quds Force, the offensive arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the ideological arm of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Quds Force is part of the 125,000-strong IRGC, a paramilitary organization that answers only to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei. It is not part of 350,000-strong regular army.

The Guard oversees Iran’s ballistic missile program, has its naval forces shadow the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf, and includes an all-volunteer Basij force that thwarts dissent domestically with violence. It can potentially mobilise many hundreds of thousands of personnel.

Soleimani was key in expanding Iran’s influence through planning attacks or bolstering Tehran’s local allies.

He provided support to numerous militant groups in the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, the Houthis of Yemen, and the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq.

Soleimani helped President Bashar-al Assad of Syria turn back the forces trying to depose him in that country’s civil war, when he deployed upwards of 50,000 fighters to shore up Assad’s tottering regime.

Soleimani’s Iraqi Shia militias, which are integrated formally into the Iraqi security apparatus, have long been the real power in Baghdad. They consist of some 40 paramilitary groups capable of mobilizing 120,000 fighters.

Soleimani also used Iraq as a forward base to target a U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia and to deploy weapons in Syria and Lebanon.

These proxy wars, orchestrated by Soleimani, have led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians throughout the Middle East, especially in Syria and Yemen.

Iran and the United States have been adversaries in one way or another since the coming to power of the Islamic regime in 1979.

But in recent years the animosity between them has heightened, particularly since Trump in May 2018 withdrew from the Iran nuclear agreement, signed by his predecessor Barack Obama and five other countries in 2015. It was designed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Under the accord, Iran had agreed to limit its nuclear activities and allow in international inspectors. Many, however, asserted that Iran was continuing its program clandestinely.

Trump also imposed crippling economic sanctions on Iran as part of his campaign to exert “maximum pressure” on its regime.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran intensified over the past year. Last May, Washington accused Iran of masterminding attacks against six oil tankers in the Persian Gulf. After Iran shot down a U.S. drone near the Iranian coast, Washington maintained it was over international waters, but Iran said it was over its territory.

In September, drone and missile attacks damaged two key Saudi oil facilities. Both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia linked these attacks to Iran, although Tehran denied any involvement.

Late last month, rockets struck a U.S. base in Iraq, killing an American military contractor. It was the eleventh such attack on an American base in recent years.

In response, the United States bombed bases in Iraq and Syria controlled by Kataib Hezbollah, a unit of the Popular Mobilization Forces.

Pro-Iranian Iraqi demonstrators then converged on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and broke into its compound. Iraqi security officials did not try to stop them.

U.S. Secretary of Defence Mark Esper warned that the United States would pre-emptively strike pro-Iranian forces in Iraq and Syria should there be indications of further attacks.

Following Soleimani’s death, Tehran has announced it will no longer abide by the terms of the nuclear deal. In fact, Iran had begun rolling back key commitments in July.

Khamenei called for three days of mourning after the general’s death and appointed Soleimani’s deputy, Ismail Ghaani, as Soleimani’s successor. Iran also retaliated by firing missiles at two air bases housing American forces in Iraq.

One of Ghaani’s first duties will likely be to oversee whatever revenge Iran intends to seek for Soleimani’s death.