Soleimani was a monster, wanted atomic cloud over Tel Aviv -

[JustJohn or JJ]

Soleimani was a monster, wanted atomic cloud over Tel Aviv - German newspaper

The title of Reichelt’s commentary was, “Trump has freed the world from a monster.”

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
JANUARY 4, 2020 18:16

Julian Reichelt, the editor-in-chief of best-selling German newspaper Bild, on Friday authored a barn-burning commentary praising US President Donald Trump for authorizing a military strike to eliminate Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
"President Trump has freed the world of a monster whose aim in life was an atomic cloud over Tel Aviv. Trump has acted in self-defense – the self-defense of the US and all peace-loving people," wrote Reichelt.

He added that “the Iranian terror godfather Qassem Soleimani stood for a world that no peace-loving person can want: a world in which you can be torn apart by a bomb at any time because you are in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The commentary singled out Soleimani’s scorched-earth campaign in the Syrian war: "A world in which entire cities are wiped out – like Aleppo. In which bloodthirsty militia go from door to door and execute civilians."

Reichelt noted the potential of Iran’s regime to carry out terrorism in Germany and Israel, "in which the kindergartens in Germany could burn up in fireballs at any time because its children are Jewish. In which Israel is under threat of extinction every day."

The title of Reichelt’s commentary was, “Trump has freed the world from a monster.”

The US Pentagon said it took preventive military action against Soleimani because he planned attacks against American diplomats. According to the US State Department, Soleimani oversaw terrorist operations that were “responsible for the deaths of at least 603 American service members in Iraq.”

The US Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, wrote on Twitter, “As a diplomat, I believe there isn’t enough media attention on the fact that General Soleimani was planning to attack US diplomats. @realdonaldtrump caught Soleimani in the act. And saved lives by stopping him.”

Reichelt wrote: "Soleimani, the world’s most repelling and bloodthirsty terrorist, who brought suffering and harm over humanity on the mullahs’ behalf, was an enemy of our civilization. He represented the unbearable thought that murderers will live more safely and be more untouchable the more people they kill (with the support of the state)."

The editor-in-chief declared that, "His violent and overdue end will not stop global terrorism, but the image of his burnt-out car still sends out a powerful message. US President Donald Trump has made it clear that the worst figures in the world, however big-mouthed and ruthless they may be, cannot hide from America’s strength."

[kaima]

Another German perspective, from Der Spiegel:

Trump's Declaration of War
Conflict with Iran Could Be Inevitable after Killing of General

Trump's Declaration of War: Conflict with Iran Could Be Inevitable after Killing of General

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted he does not want war with Iran. Now, with the killing of General Qassem Soleimani, that conflict could be inevitable. It is the price for instinctual foreign policy devoid of experts.

A Commentary by Maximilian Popp

He wanted to do everything differently, using deals instead of alliances, pressure instead of strategy. Even among Donald Trump's critics, there were many who long thought it might be a bad way to approach foreign policy. After all, preceding U.S. presidents had all struggled for years to find solutions to the same set of apparently insoluble crises: Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea.

Donald Trump made a complete break with traditional U.S. foreign policy. He got rid of the experts in the State Department and discarded the tools of diplomacy --negotiations, trade-offs and the weighing of interests. The guiding principle was "disruption." Trump claimed that he could solve conflicts purely with his charisma and his imagination. After all, didn't the tech companies in Silicon Valley likewise remodel the world with their innovations?

Now, though, the failure of Trump's approach has become obvious to all. Disruption might be a model appropriate for Google and Facebook, but not for global politics.

On Tuesday, Shiite militiamen attacked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, likely at the behest of Iran, and the ambassador had to be evacuated along with embassy staff. On Thursday night, the U.S. responded by killing the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, in a missile strike in Baghdad. Soleimani was considered to be the second-most powerful man in Iran and his assassination is nothing short of a declaration of war. At almost the exact same time, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un threatened to carry out new nuclear weapons tests. Two crises that Trump had promised to contain have now become more acute and threatening than they had been for some time.

The killing of Soleimani is the epitome of Trump's capriciousness. The ploy of unexpectly changing directions, of making threats and surprise attacks has not managed to extricate the U.S. from the Iraq-Iran-Syria quagmire. Washington has continued to be dragged into conflicts in the Middle East. Ever since the U.S., under Trump's leadership, backed out of the nuclear deal with Iran, Tehran has changed course. It has responded to the Trump administration's strategy of "maximum pressure" with provocations, for example by attacking American facilities in the Middle East. The Iranian regime had hoped the approach might force the Trump administration back to the negotiating table.

Now it looks as though the reciprocal attacks could lead to catastrophe. The U.S. killing of Tehran's most important general, a man celebrated by the regime as a kind of folk hero and revolutionary freedom fighter, marks the continuation of this confrontation. It is a dramatic, shocking move that Tehran can hardly leave unanswered. Trump has said he isn't interested in war, but his course of action is heading toward exactly that.

That is the greatest danger currently facing the world, but it isn't the only potentially dangerous consequence of Trump's instinctual foreign policy. North Korea's Kim Jong Un also remains unpredictable. For a brief moment, it looked as though he might respond positively to Trump's personal approaches and scale back his nuclear program in exchange for economic concessions. Since his bellicose New Year's address, however, in which he directly threatened America, it has become clearer than ever that the Bomb is more important to Kim than economic relations with the U.S.

Triggering a War by Accident

Trump's failure holds a lesson both for the U.S. government and for the Europeans: Namely that blatant pugnacity may be appropriate for political campaigns, but it has no place in diplomacy. Foreign policy is both arduous and dangerous. It requires endurance, humility and a willingness to compromise.

The nuclear deal with Iran assembled by former U.S. President Barack Obama didn't prevent the regime in Tehran from fomenting strife in the region either -- and Qassem Soleimani was Iran's most important tool for doing so. Nevertheless, Obama's attempt to break down the Iran problem into its component parts was the right approach. Large conflicts must be solved step-by-step rather than with a single, grandiose deal: you cease working on the development of nuclear weapons and we'll loosen sanctions. That's how diplomacy works. Europe should continue taking this approach.

The North Korean example demonstrates just how important it is to involve political professionals. Trump, though, has no respect for experts. By getting rid of countless staff members, he has essentially sidelined the State Department, and in negotiations with Pyongyang, this ignorance made itself felt. Trump relied heavily on the supposed friendship he thought he had with Kim, failing to understand -- and there was apparently no one around to tell him -- just how important nuclear weapons are for Kim's own grip on power. That is the only explanation for why Trump was unable to secure at least a temporary stop to the North Korean nuclear program in exchange for the 2019 summit with Kim in Hanoi.

There is nothing wrong with courageous, surprising foreign-policy initiatives. Former German Chancellor Willy Brandt's rapprochement with the Soviet bloc made the world a safer place. But they have to be carefully prepared and carefully applied. Diplomacy is a serious undertaking. Those who don't approach it with the gravity it deserves risk triggering a war by accident.

[karl]

It appears by most all accounts, Mr. Trump is shooting from the hip and not with care in proper aiming. For this matters need be constituted in a Diplomatic manner. There is a much better way of conducting business of simular results. Either let the Saudis do their own work, or at least conduct business in a Diplomatic manner that is an accepted manner for all parties.

What though is a positive note in all of this, Soleimani is no more of this earth, and Mr. Trump may just beat his situation in the currant situation he is in hot water with the currant impeachment issue hanging over his head.

Karl

[kaima]

With all the Monsters in the world, where should we stop? We have the capability today to assassinate most anybody. Do we let the crazy guy in the White House decide who gets blown to mince meat, or do we entrust others with these decisions?

Then as the technology becomes more widespread do we accept Putin doing his dirty work directly, and after him anyone who has a trigger nearby? Netanyahu certainly has the technology, but they have America to do it for them, and we are already the paid mercenaries for Saudi Arabia. When do we fly to North Korea and nail their Crazy Man? It will be interesting to see when (distant or near future) the Chinese start in with Assassinations ...

Let's have at it, Boys! We have the Toys!

Kai

[kaima]

Opinion from the Czech news media:

www.extra.cz/iran-vypsal-odmenu-na-zlutovlaseho-silence-80-milionu-dolaru-tomu-kdo-prinese-hlavu-trumpa?utm_source=Facebook.com&utm_medium=Social-organic&utm_campaign=jice&fbclid=IwAR2MOFLwDxancjJtM5oCdmTg4FsP9coFPiXgJcZD1C367Ogm_seXf5FEX0w

Iran has posted a reward on a yellow-haired madman: $ 80 million to the one who brings Trump's head

Zdroj:



Iran has pledged $ 80 million to reward President Donald Trump. Trump himself caused the riots when he ordered a missile attack on Baghdad airport in Iraq. The bombing was killed by the commander of Iranian elite troops Kuds Kasim Suleimani, for which Iran wants retaliation. January 6, 2020 13.03 |

Zdroj:

The United States dropped bombs in the Middle East on Friday. The attack was carried out on a "direct order", under the US President Donald Trump . The commander of elite Iranian troops was killed in the bombing of an international airport in the capital of Iraq, Baghdad.

Major General Suleimani , 62, was commander of the elite Kuds. These are sections of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps responsible for operations outside Iran. He was considered a military pride of the Iranian regime. Everyone was a hero, and he held an absolutely exceptional position in Iranian politics. Millions of Iranians have taken to the streets to mourn and honor their hero. Parades were held in many cities.

The Iranians were so angry that one of the spokesmen in the funeral procession in Mashhad announced a reward for President Trump's head. “We are 80 million Iranians. If each of us postpones one US dollar, we will have 80 million US dollars. We will reward anyone who brings us the head of President Trump with this sum, ”he said on a live broadcast on Channel One.

“And we would give these $ 80 million as a gift to anyone who brings the head of the one who ordered the murder of the strong figure of our revolution. Anyone who brings us the head of this yellow-haired madman will receive $ 80 million from the Iranian nation, ”continued the man, who apparently was one of the funeral organizers. The massive crowd followed him with loud singing.

Zdroj:

[karl]

It is by obvious apparent the Iranians are some what upset, and with this, this great deal of money to be presented not by the Iranian Government, but by private donations that do not exist as of the present.

The above carries the sound of Arab boasting but by the mouths of Farsi,s.

Karl

[Jaga]

suddenly we are on the brink of the war... I guess military-industrial complex in the US needs some money and entertainment. Let just bomb all the historical sides.

Even FoxNews is skeptical:
www.mediaite.com/tv/tucker-carlson-rips-iran-hawks-why-do-those-who-denounced-deep-state-suddenly-believe-intel-agencies/

[kaima]

If the Iranians are smart they will bomb the different Trump Towers around the world! At least with the first one there would be a great surge of world support for their action!


"According to Forbes, this portion of Trump's empire, actually run by his children, has valuation of $562 million. According to Forbes, there were 33 licensing projects under development including seven "condo hotels" (the seven Trump International Hotel and Tower developments).
The Trump Organization - Wikipedia "

[kaima]

From Fox news

In the same month, Trump expressed the sentiment in a video blog posted on Nov. 16, 2011.

“Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He's weak and he's ineffective. So the only way he figures that he's going to get reelected — and as sure as you're sitting there — is to start a war with Iran,” Trump said in the video.

www.fox10phoenix.com/news/trump-claimed-in-2011-2012-that-obama-would-start-war-with-iran-to-get-reelected

[pieter]

Folks,

I live in the city Arnhem where about 195 different nationalities live next to each other in often migrant subburbs, but also in mixed native European Dutch and migrant neighbourhoods. A lot of these people come from the Middle east, Northern Africa (Morocco), Turkey, Iran, East Africa, Central Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo and Indonesia. A lot of these people have a Sunni Muslim, Shia Muslim, Sufi or Ahmadiyya Muslim background. Quite a few Iranians with all kinds of political affiliations, walks of life and interests live in Arnhem. Most Iranians have a Shia Muslim background. As a matter a fact a lot of the Sunni Muslim majority in Arnhem dislike the Shia Muslims, whether they are Iranian, Iraqi or Lebanese. They simply don't like them and often simply hate them. Unfortunately Islam is in the position the Christian world was a few hundred years ago. Of course there were and are also Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims that can get along, there are even Iraqi and Lebanese people who come from mixed families with for instance a Sunni Muslim father and a Shia Muslim mother. Some of them can get along and some Sunni Muslim mosques are tolerant and open and even allow Shia Muslims to pray in their mosques. Others are strict and prohibit Shia muslims to pray in their Salafist mosque, because they consider Shia Muslims, Ahmadiyya Muslims and Alevite Muslims to be heretics and non Muslims. Roman-Catholics, Calvinists, Lutherans and Orthodox Byzantine Christians also feared and loathed each other, waged war at each other and simply killed each other in Europe a few hundred years ago.

What I found out in the last 30 years from Amsterdam to Arnhem was that whenever I spoke with people from the Middle east, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Muslim East-Africa, Central-Africa or North Africa that most often these people with a Muslim background see the United Kingdom and the USA as the cause of all problems in the Middle east and the entire Muslim world. They point at Western colonialism (the British and French colonial empires that occupied and ruled the Berber, Arab, Kurd and Persian -Iranian- and Indian lands), Western Imperialism, Western capitalism, Western arms dealers, Western oil interests, Western nations supporting despotic rulers and etc. I was amazed all these years about the lack of self criticism, the fact that you have despotic Arab, Berber (Muammar Gaddafi in Libiya, Abdelmadjid Tebboune in Algeria, and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunesia) and Iranian rulers in the region. I worked with Iranians in the Arnhem hospital Rijnstate from 2001 until 2006 and therefor knew the Iranian community in these days. Next to them I knew an Iranian artist who studied at the Arnhem Art academy like me. Her intellectual father in Iran told her to find out things herself and to study, so she studied Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, the old Persian faith Zoroastrianism, democracy, Nationalism, economy, anthropology, philosophy, history, art and Marxism. She became a Marxist and atheist and first opposed the Shah regime as a dissident and later opposed the Khomeini Theocratic Islamist dictatorship and fled to the West, to the Netherlands in Europe. I met a lot of Iranians like that in the Netherlands, there are also Iranian Kurds, Iranian jews, Azerbaijani Iranians and Iranian Arabs from the persecuted Sunni Muslim Arab minority amongst them. The Iranian community is pluriform and diverse. You have Monarchist Shah supporters amongst them, next to secular nationalists, republicans, socialists, social democrats, Marxists/communists, People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran supporters (also called Mojahedin-e Khalq), moderate Shia Muslims and probably also Iranian regime supporters amongst them (infiltrators who spy on and check the Iranian communities abroad. It is well known that the Iranian regime from Tehran sends assassins abroad to kill dissidents).

Iranians of all political colours always remember the Plot to depose Mosaddegh, the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in favour of strengthening the monarchical rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on 19 August 1953, orchestrated by the United States (under the name TPAJAX Project or "Operation Ajax") and the United Kingdom (under the name "Operation Boot"). It was the first covert action of the United States to overthrow a foreign government during peacetime.


Mohammad Mosaddegh (16 June 1882 – 5 March 1967) was the 35th prime minister of Iran, holding office from 1951 until 1953, when his government was overthrown in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état orchestrated by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency and the United Kingdom's MI6.


Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (26 October 1919 – 27 July 1980),[3] also known as Mohammad Reza Shah (محمد رضا شاه), was the last Shah (Emperor) of Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979.

Link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

Ruhollah Khomeini said the government didn't pay enough attention to religious figures which caused the coup d'état to take place and described the separation between religion and politics as a fault in contemporary history.

Ali Khamenei believed that Mosaddeq trusted the United States and asked them to help confront Britain. As a result, the 1953 coup d'état was executed by the U.S. against Mosaddeq.

Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, said in regard to the role of the U.S. in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état that the U.S. played a major role in the overthrow of a democratically elected prime minister.

In a tweet sent on 19 August 2018, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stated that the U.S. overthrew the popularly elected democratic government of Dr. Mosaddegh with the 1953 coup, restoring the dictatorship and subjugating Iranians for the next 25 years.


Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stated that the U.S. overthrew the popularly elected democratic government of Dr. Mosaddegh with the 1953 coup, restoring the dictatorship and subjugating Iranians for the next 25 years.


Sayyid Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (24 September 1902 – 3 June 1989), also known in the Western world as Ayatollah Khomeini, was an Iranian revolutionary, politician, and cleric. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which saw the overthrow of the last shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the end of the 2,500 year old Persian monarchy. Following the revolution, Khomeini became the country's supreme leader, a position created in the constitution of the Islamic Republic as the highest-ranking political and religious authority of the nation, which he held until his death. He was succeeded by Ali Khamenei on 4 June 1989.


Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei[6] (born 19 April 1939) is a Twelver Shia Marja' and the second and current supreme leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously the president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei is the second-longest serving head of state in the Middle East (after Oman's Sultan Qaboos), as well as the second-longest serving Iranian leader of the last century, after Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

Iran–Iraq War



The Iran–Iraq War began on 22 September 1980, when Iraq invaded Iran, and it ended on 20 August 1988, when Iran accepted the UN-brokered ceasefire. Iraq wanted to replace Iran as the dominant Persian Gulf state, and was worried the 1979 Iranian Revolution would lead Iraq's Shi'ite majority to rebel against the Ba'athist government. The war also followed a long history of border disputes, and Iraq planned to annex the oil-rich Khuzestan Province and the east bank of the Arvand Rud (Shatt al-Arab).



Although Iraq hoped to take advantage of Iran's post-revolutionary chaos, it made limited progress and was quickly repelled; Iran regained virtually all lost territory by June 1982. For the next six years, Iran was on the offensive until near the end of the war. There were a number of proxy forces—most notably the People's Mujahedin of Iran siding with Iraq and the Iraqi Kurdish militias of the KDP and PUK siding with Iran. The United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, France, and most Arab countries provided political and logistic support for Iraq, while Iran was largely isolated.

After eight years, war-weariness, economic problems, decreased morale, repeated Iranian military failures, recent Iraqi successes, Iraqi use of weapons of mass destruction, lack of international sympathy, and increased U.S.–Iran military tension all led to a ceasefire brokered by the United Nations.

The conflict has been compared to World War I in terms of the tactics used, including large-scale trench warfare with barbed wire stretched across fortified defensive lines, manned machine gun posts, bayonet charges, Iranian human wave attacks, extensive use of chemical weapons by Iraq, and, later, deliberate attacks on civilian targets. A special feature of the war can be seen in the Iranian cult of the martyr which had been developed in the years before the revolution. The discourses on martyrdom formulated in the Iranian Shiite context led to the tactics of "human wave attacks" and thus had a lasting impact on the dynamics of the war.



An estimated 500,000 Iraqi and Iranian soldiers died, in addition to a smaller number of civilians. The end of the war resulted in neither reparations nor border changes.



Iran–Iraq relations today


Iran (on the right side) is green on this map and Iraq (on the left) is orange on this map

As of January 2010, the two countries have signed over 100 economic and cooperation agreements. Since 2003, Iraq has allowed Shia Muslims from Iran to make the pilgrimage to holy Shia sites in Iraq. In March 2008, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became the first Iranian president to visit Iraq since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Former Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki has made several state visits to Iran since 2006 and expressed sympathy with Iran over its nuclear energy program. Iran has since become Iraq's largest trading partner. Iran and Iraq are very close allies supporting each other against ISIS. The relationship between the two countries is strong in part due to the fact that both governments operate on a Shi'ite system of governance.[citation needed] Increasing influence of Tehran in Iraqi politics has led to civilians protesting the foreign involvement and presence of Iran-backed militias harassing and attacking citizens.

Iran has an embassy in Baghdad and four consulate generals in Basrah, Sulaymaniyah, Erbil and Karbala. Iraq has an embassy in Tehran and three consulate generals in Kermanshah, Ahvaz and Mashhad. On 7 September 2018, Iraqi citizens set the Iranian embassy on fire as a part of a series of protests and arson against the foreign power seen as becoming too influential in local domestic politics. On 27 November 2019, Iraqi protestors burned down the Iran consulate.

Iran has taken an increasingly salient role within the Iraqi government and security forces since the United States originally withdrew and ISIS rose to power. In Basra alone, there are numerous stories of Iranian militant factions harassing and kidnapping civilians. On September 7, 2018 several months of protest and arson erupted into an attack against the Iranian consulate within Iraq, where it was set ablaze by rocket fire.

On 9 April 2019, a day after United States put Iran’s IRGC in the list of "Foreign terrorist Organization”, Iraqi Prime Minister, Adel Abdel Mahdi said he had talked to all sides and tried to stop the American decision.

In August 2019, Iran seized an Iraqi oil tanker in the Gulf and detained seven sailors for "smuggling fuel for some Arab countries". Iraq denied any connection with the vessel and claimed to investigate the matter.

Commerce



Iran plays an important role in the Iraqi reconstruction. Iran's non-oil exports to Iraq were valued at $1.8 billion in 2007 and $2.3 billion in 2008.[31] Each month, more than 40,000 Iranians visit Shiite holy sites such as Najaf and Karbala, buying religious souvenirs and supporting the economy through tourism. Iraq imports cars, construction materials, medicine, fruits, spices, fish, air conditioners, office furniture, carpets and apparel from Iran. Basra alone imports $45 million of goods from Iran each year, including carpets, construction materials, fish and spices. Each day, 100 to 150 commercial trucks transport goods from Iran to Iraq through the nearby Shalamcheh border crossing (2008). As of January 2010, the two countries signed over 100 economic and cooperation agreements.

The volume of trade between Iran and Iraq reached $12 billion in 2013. The main areas of trade between the two countries are the construction, food and industrial sectors.


There is an extensive economic, trade cooperation between Iran and Iraq

December 2019 Kata'ib Hezbollah – U.S. attacks in Iraq


Fighters from the Kataib Hezbollah inspect the destruction at their headquarters after a US airstrike in Qaim, Iraq. (AP)

On 27 December 2019, a rocket attack on the K1 military base in Iraq, which houses U.S. and Iraqi forces, killed a U.S. civilian contractor and wounded several U.S. and Iraqi service members. U.S. officials stated that there was an involvement of Kata'ib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Iraqi Shi'ite militia group.

On 29 December 2019, the U.S. conducted airstrikes against Kata'ib Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for the death of the U.S. contractor. At least 25 Kata'ib Hezbollah fighters were killed and more than 50 wounded.

In response, Iranian-backed militia groups stormed the US Embassy in Baghdad on December 31st, 2019. They burned buildings and defaced property. The group of people left the Embassy on January 1st, 2020.

January 2020 killing of Qasem Soleimani



On 3 January 2020, Qasem Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, was killed by a US airstrike in Iraq. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed “severe revenge” against the United States. Declaring three days of public mourning for the general’s death, Khamenei stated that “harsh retaliation” waited for the U.S. In the aftermath of Soleimani’s killing, the U.S. announced to move over 3,000 additional troops to the Middle East from the 82nd Airborne Division as a precautionary measure amid rising threats from Iran.

On the same day, Switzerland said it had conveyed a U.S. diplomatic message to Iran. Iran said that in the note, the United States had called for a "proportional response" to the killing of the Quds Force leader. In turn, Iran summoned the Swiss envoy and stated that the Americans "made a wrong move and are now worried about its consequences".

On January 7, Iran's Parliament unanimously passed a bill naming all branches of the US Armed Forces and employees of The Pentagon "terrorists". The bill states "Any aid to these forces, including military, intelligence, financial, technical, service or logistical, will be considered as cooperation in a terrorist act"


Qasem Soleimani (P11 March 1957 – 3 January 2020), also transliterated as Qassem Suleimani or Qassim Soleimani, was an Iranian major general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and, from 1998 until his death, commander of its Quds Force, a division primarily responsible for extraterritorial military and clandestine operations.

Sources: Wikipedia, CIA Factbook and Encyclopedia Britannica

[pieter]

Supreme Leader Khamenei weeps while leading prayers at Soleimani's funeral

[pieter]

[pieter]

India: Kashmir's Shia community vow "revenge" for Soleimani assassination

[pieter]

Pakistan: Soleimani killing sparks outrage among Shia community




Thousands mourned Iranian general Qassem Soleimani at funeral in Baghdad


The threat from the Shia Muslim world

Shias form a majority of the population in Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iran, and Iraq, as well as a plurality in Lebanon. Shias constitute 36.3% of the entire population (and 38.6% of the Muslim population) of the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia hosts a number of distinct Shia communities, including the Twelver Baharna in the Eastern Province and Nakhawila of Medina, and the Ismaili Sulaymani and Zaidiyyah of Najran. Estimations put the number of Shiite citizens at 2–4 million, accounting for roughly 15% of the local population.

In contrast with the general belief or opinion not all Shia Muslims are pro Iranian. Some Arab Shia Muslims resent the dominance of Iranian (Persian Farsi speaking) Shia clerics, military advisors, people of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the 'Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution'. For instance some Iraqi Shia leaders, clerics or politicians of Shia political parties that are no Pro-Iranian. You also have secular Shia Muslims and Arab nationalist or Pan-Arabic Shia Muslims who are not so fund of the dominance of the Persian (Iranian) Shia Muslims in the Shia Muslim world.

But fact is that Iran has a great influence on Shia Muslims in Southern Lebanon on the Israeli Northern border, Beirut and the Beqaa Valley in Eastern Lebanon (Hezbollah and Amal supporters), Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. The following countries have these amounts of Shia Muslim citizens: Turkey (7,000,000–11,000,000), Saudi Arabia (2,000,000–4,000,000), Yemen (8,000,000–10,000,000, amongst them the Houthi's), the United Arab Emirates (300,000–400,000), Qatar (100,000), Bahrain (400,000–500,000), Oman (100,000–300,000), Kuwait (500,000–700,000), Afghanistan (3,000,000–4,000,000), Pakistan (17,000,000–26,000,000), India (17,000,000–26,000,000), Azerbaijan (5,000,000–7,000,000), Bangladesh (40,000–50,000), Tanzania (2,000,000), Germany (400,000–600,000), the United Kingdom (100,000–300,000), the USA (200,000–400,000), Tajikistan (400,000), Sudan (Shiaism and its related Mahdist ideology have recently grown in popularity in Sudan. A growing number of Shias, for example, have emerged in the capital and largest city, Khartoum and surrounding villages.), and Somalia (Most residents of Somalia are Muslims, of which the most prominent subset that is practised being the Sunni branch of Islam and the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence. However, other denominations of Islam are also practised, including, Ibadism, Non-denominational Islam, puritanical (Muwwahid/Salafi/Zahiri), and some adherents of the Shia Muslim denomination.)

[pieter]