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Along with the first anniversary of the assassination of the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani in Iraq, analyzes have increased about the great loss suffered by the Iranian regime following the assassination of Iran’s first man.
In the early hours of the morning of January 3, 2020, the United States dropped the curtain on Iran’s first man in the region and the destabilizing arm of guide Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, after he was assassinated in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
According to the US Department of Defense, Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of the Iraqi People’s Mobilization Forces, were killed in an airstrike from a drone targeting their convoy near Baghdad’s international airport.
Muhammad Kawas, a political researcher in London, said that Soleimani’s assassination was necessary and perhaps delayed, due to Iran’s aggressive policy in the region, indicating that this process changed the US policy of confrontation with Iran, and through which Washington announced that it wanted to end Tehran’s policy in the region by hitting its head. Bayonet in the area.
Kawas added, speaking to Al-Hurra TV, that the assassination of Soleimani and Washington’s announcement of this was a surprise, and that it was equivalent to announcing a new US policy toward Iran, and that its militia leaders are not up to it. except from American fire.
A victory for the innocent
Muhammad al-Sheikhly, an Iraqi political analyst, said Soleimani’s assassination was a victory for the innocent whose blood Soleimani and the militias affiliated with him had stained with his blood.
Speaking to the Al-Hurra channel, he added that Soleimani’s murder was necessary because of the crimes he committed against innocent civilians that led to genocide, as well as his militia, while he was behind them in Anbar, Salah al-Din and Nineveh.
For his part, Ali Nuri Zadeh, director of the Center for American-Iranian Studies, said that Soleimani’s assassination saved the region from a major conflict, indicating that he was planning major terrorist attacks in the region through his militias, thus that Washington decided to get rid of him.
Speaking to the Al-Hurra channel, Zadeh said that Soleimani’s assassination caused great confusion in the corridors of the Iranian regime, because Khamenei trusted him and charged him with implementing the regime’s policies in the region.
In the wake of the assassination, a statement from the US Department of Defense spokesperson stated that Soleimani was “planning to attack US diplomats and military service personnel in Iraq and throughout the region.”
Measure attacks
He added that the Revolutionary Guard general and his “Quds Force” were responsible for killing hundreds of US and coalition forces and wounding thousands, and noted that he had orchestrated attacks on coalition force bases in Iraq during the years. last months.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in January 2020 that the timing of Soleimani’s assassination came after intelligence reports warned that he intended to carry out attacks against the United States.
Pompeo added in statements to the US news station “CNN” that “the decision to kill the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Soleimani, was inevitable after the many great risks and threats it posed to regional and American interests.” Pompeo emphasized that “Soleimani’s activities were destructive for several countries in the region, especially in the region.” Iraq and Lebanon, ”noting that the world is safer after Soleimani’s death.
Richard Watts, chief investigator and director of military analysis at the Hudson Institute in Washington, believes the assassination eased tensions after Iran’s initial response. People became cautious about the dangers of war and Soleimani’s successors were not powerful globally.
Speaking to the Al-Hurra channel, Watz said killing him was not necessary, but it reduced Iran’s ability to interfere in neighboring countries and influence them through its militias.
A fatal blow
Al-Sheikhly said Soleimani’s assassination dealt a devastating blow to Iran’s expansion project in Iraq, indicating that he had great influence on Iraqi politicians affiliated with the sectarian parties that were formed in Tehran, and that he was controlling the threads of the political game in Iraq on all sides politically, militarily and even economically.
He explained that Soleimani’s assassination was a blow to Iranian militias in Iraq and in Middle Eastern countries, adding that since Washington declared Iran the head of terrorism in the world, Tehran has wanted to make Iraq the front yard to defend your project.
And last July, the Pentagon said Tuesday that the commander of the Quds Force in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Qassem Soleimani, was “planning terrorist attacks against the interests of the United States and other countries before the operation to attack him.”
“Soleimani’s assassination was a service for the stability of the region and to prevent Tehran’s hand from destabilizing the security of neighboring countries,” a ministry official told Al-Hurra.
Soleimani was born in the city of Rabor in southeastern Iran in March 1957, he used to work as a construction worker and did not complete his education except at the high school stage. He then worked in the Kerman Municipal Water Department, until the success of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979.
After the revolution, Soleimani volunteered to work in the Revolutionary Guards, and after the war with Iraq broke out in 1980, he quickly rose through the ranks and rose in positions until the Iranian Supreme Leader appointed Khamenei as commander. of the Quds Force in 1998.
Soleimani remained out of the limelight after assuming this post, but became a public figure and his appearance increased in recent years with fighters and leaders in Iraq and Syria posting photos of him on social media while in the camp. battle, and became the arm of Iranian guidance to wreak havoc in the region.
He was the mastermind of Iran’s activities in the Middle East region and was responsible for Iranian militias in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and played a leading role in suppressing protesters in Syria and Iraq, as well as to play a critical role in protecting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime from the fall and in preparing Hezbollah. With missiles, as he planned to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington in 2011, Adel Al-Jubeir.
His functions were not limited to supporting and leading the military militias, as he had a prominent political role in Iran, reaching the point of appointing ambassadors despite the disagreement of Iran’s presidents, such as appointing Iraj Masjedi as ambassador to Iraq.
Soleimani was previously blacklisted by the US Treasury Department due to the Quds Force’s support of Hezbollah and other armed groups and its role in supporting Assad, and the European Union imposed sanctions on him for supporting Assad. .
In 2014, then-Canadian Foreign Minister John Bird described Soleimani as a “terrorist agent in the region disguised as a hero” fighting against the Islamic State.
Iranian project ends
Kawas claimed that Soleimani’s assassination was a message from Washington and the West in general that Iran’s policy and its interference in the region is over, and that Tehran’s leaders and militias can no longer interfere in neighboring countries and destabilize it. .
He explained that by assassinating Soleimani and the assassinations that followed him inside Iran, the Iranian regime lost the gain that it had always made, that no one could deal with it, and its prestige in the face of the militias that followed it in the Middle East region. .
Kawas believes that with the assassination of Soleimani, Iran’s expansionist and offensive project in the region has ended, and what it is doing now is trying to restore and maintain this project and preserve what remains of its influence in some Arab capitals.
Witz also confirmed that with the assassination of Soleimani, Iran lost its most skillful coordinator, either at home or with its militias in the region, indicating that his successors lacked this capability, and this is evident in Iraq and Lebanon, and it can be said at home in Iran.
In turn, Al-Sheikhly claimed that Iran is the leader of terrorism in the world, and that Soleimani’s assassination is cutting off one of the arms of terrorism in the region, indicating that in the absence of Soleimani, the expansionist and hostile project of Iran collapsed in the Middle East.
As for Zadeh, he believes that the biggest thing the Iranian regime lost with the assassination of Soleimani is his consideration and stature, and the lie of his pompous slogans that he uses, pointing out that the assassination of both Soleimani and after him, Mohsen Fakhri Zadeh, the country’s top Iranian nuclear scientist who enjoys superior protection, on the impotence and weakness of the regime.
Militia rebellion
Hours after Soleimani’s death, Islamic Republic Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appointed Brigadier General Ismail Qaani commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, just hours after his predecessor, Qassem Soleimani, was killed in a US drone attack.
But according to observers, Qaani failed to play the role of Soleimani as supreme leader of the militias and used them as a network to implement Iran’s ambitions, and does not have strong influence among the militia leaders, causing him to lose. the control.
Al-Sheikhly believes that there is no comparison between Soleimani and Qaani, either in terms of the capabilities of both sides, pointing to the existence of a rebellion among the militias against Qaani’s policy, especially after he did not provide material support to them. the light of the economic blockade imposed by Washington on Tehran.
Zadeh said that Qaani was weak, impersonal and unpopular in the Revolutionary Guard, and that Khamenei appointed him temporarily until he found an officer on the same level as Soleimani, where he has failed so far, prompting Qaani to continue in his post .
Kawas noted that following Soleimani’s assassination, his successor failed to control his affiliated militias in Iraq, and this is evidenced by Qaani’s announcement that he was heading to Iraq to calm militias to stop their attacks on the Iraqi embassy. The United States not to increase the tension in the region, adding that this is how it says that it is no longer a leader of the militias. He works in politics and continued: “Qaani wants to tell the world that whoever wants to negotiate with these militias comes to Tehran.”
Witz also confirmed that by assassinating Soleimani, Iran lost its most skillful coordinator, either at home or with its militias in the region, stating that his successors lacked this capability and this is evident in Iraq and Lebanon, and can be said at home in Iran, adding that this is evident in militia operations in recent weeks. Despite Tehran’s call for calm pending the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, the reins of power in the United States.
