Saturday, January 04, 2020

United States (US) President Donald Trump ordered the killing of a top Iranian general on Thursday, and in his characteristic style, the president made sure the world knew who was responsible.


Trump's claim of Iran link to Delhi terror plot puts India in a bind


Though Trump did not give any specifics on Friday about the IRGC terror plots in Delhi, many in official circles here believe that he was alluding to 2012 attack on Israeli defence attache's wife

IANS  |  New Delhi/Washington 

US President Donald Trump's claim that the slain Iranian military commander and intelligence chief Major General Qassem Soleimani was responsible for terror plots in New Delhi has cornered India that shares a delicate relationship with Iran.
The US on Thursday killed the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Soleimani and other top military leaders in an airstrike in Baghdad.
Though President Trump did not give any specifics on Friday about the IRGC terror plots in Delhi, many in official circles here believe that he was alluding to the 2012 bombing of the car of the wife of the Israeli defence attache in New Delhi.
Israel had blamed Iran for the attack, which was seen as retaliation for the killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan by the Mossad in a similarly executed attack.
An Indian journalist Syed Mohammad Ahmad Kazmi, who was arrested and later released on bail, was accused of having carried out the reconnaissance for the Quds Force, Iran's external intelligence agency headed by Soleimani.
While the US is India's most important ally and Israel remains a strategic partner on many core issues, Iran enjoys significance given its geographical location, religious demographics and its overall sympathetic view of India.
New Delhi hopes that the Chabahar Port in Iran, which it is helping develop to access oil and gas resources in Iran and Central Asian countries, will offset the competition that Beijing poses with its Gwadar Port built in Pakistan's Balochistan province.
Iran, affected badly by the US sanctions over its refusal to pursue nuclear programme, seeks to recover its economy with the help of accessing Asian markets using the Chabahar Port.
Similarly, the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC), the sea, rail and road route to move freight between India, Russia, Iran, Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, is another major dream project aimed to benefit both India and Iran economically.
Around five million Indians live in the Iran which holds huge religious and cultural influence over the Shia population (16 to 25 million) in India.
"The attack by the US on IRGC commander can destablize the entire Middle East and it will hurt India's relations with Iran. It is not good for us because we will need to evacuate our citizens. Oil prices will go up and remittances will go down. We stand to lose a lot," a senior Indian diplomat who didn't want to be quoted told IANS.
Even as the US has exempted New Delhi from the conditions of the sanctions it has imposed on Iran, Tehran's oil supplies to India has shrunk while American oil imports have risen significantly. India is also relying on imports from Iraq.
Given the grave provocation, Iran has been threatening to retaliate against the US strike, which it called "state terrorism" in its official statement at the UN.
"Republic of Iran reserves all of its rights under international law to take necessary measures in this regard in particular in exercising its inherent right to self defence," Iranian Permanent Representative Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi at the UN said.
It is "self evident that the US shall bear full responsibility for all consequences", Iran has threatened.
As the situation escalates in the Middle East, both the US and Iran are likely to pressurize their respective allies to abandon transactional approach to international relations.
"India may have to pick a side this time. But not standing by Iran will cause it more harm than good," an official in the Indian embassy at Tehran said.
Donald Trump rattles Middle East, US politics with risky Iran strike
As reports filtered out from Iraq that Qassem Soleimani had been killed in a US airstrike, some administration officials quietly acknowledged American involvementAgencies Last Updated at January 4, 2020 03:17 IST

A boy carries a portrait of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen Qassem Soleimani, prior to the Friday prayers in Tehran on Friday. Photo: AP/PTI

United States (US) President Donald Trump ordered the killing of a top Iranian general on Thursday, and in his characteristic style, the president made sure the world knew who was responsible.

As reports filtered out from Iraq that Qassem Soleimani had been killed in a US airstrike, some administration officials quietly acknowledged American involvement.

Then, a tweet from the president: an image of the American flag, absent any commentary. And finally, a statement from the Defense Department: Trump ordered a strike on Soleimani, leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds force, to prevent attacks on US personnel.

Trump’s decision to kill a man regarded as the second most powerful person in Iran was hailed by his allies as one of his boldest strokes in foreign policy and lambasted by his critics as likely his most reckless.

Trump defended the move Friday morning in a series of tweets saying Soleimani was planning to attack Americans.

That the attack came two days into Trump’s re-election year, and while he faces an impeachment trial in the Senate, raised immediate suspicion among his opponents that his decision was politically motivated. And the repercussions, extending to the possibility of war, are unknown.

As a private citizen in 2011, Trump publicly accused then president Barack Obama of planning war against Iran in order to secure his re-election because “he’s weak and he’s ineffective.”

But as president, Trump has shown - first by his withdrawal of US forces from Syria in September and now with the strike on Soleimani - that he will act in what he believes are the best interests of the country even in the face of potential consequences he and his advisers can in no way confidently predict.

Bracing for retaliation
In Syria, there was little planning for the aftermath. The White House was braced for potential Iranian retaliation within US borders, two officials said. One said that the government was on heightened alert, but the details of the administration’s preparations weren’t immediately clear. Soleimani planned to attack Americans: Pentagon
The Pentagon said Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack Americans in Iraq and the Middle East. “This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans,” it said, adding that the United States would continue to take necessary action to protect Americans and interests around the world.
The Pentagon said that Soleimani had “orchestrated” attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the past few months and approved the “attacks” on the US embassy in Baghdad this week.

Pompeo calls for de-escalation
The US State Department issued a directive to American citizens to depart Iraq immediately because of the heightened tensions in the region as Secretary of State Michael Pompeo called for de-escalation with Iran.

Pompeo said in a round of interviews that the US urged Iran to “de-escalate” but is prepared for a response. “We don’t seek war with Iran,” Pompeo told CNN Friday morning. “But we, at the same time, are not going to stand by and watch the Iranians escalate and continue to put American lives at risk without responding in a way that disrupts, defends, deters and creates an opportunity to de-escalate the situation.”

Breach of US troop mandate: Iraq

Iraq’s military condemned on Friday the killing of militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis by US forces in an air strike on Baghdad airport and said it was a clear breach of their mandate in Iraq.

“The Joint Operations Command mourns the hero martyr ... who was martyred last night in a cowardly and treacherous attack carried out by American aircraft near Baghdad international airport,” it said in a statement.

“We affirm that what happened is a flagrant violation of Iraqi sovereignty and a clear breach by the American forces of their mandate which is exclusively to fight Islamic State and provide advice and assistance to Iraqi security forces.”

Dozens of workers leaving Iraq

Dozens of US citizens working for foreign oil companies in the southern Iraqi oil city of Basra were leaving the country on Friday, the Oil Ministry said.

Iraqi officials said the evacuation would not affect operations, production or exports.

Company sources told Reuters earlier the workers were expected to fly out of the country.

Oil production in Iraq, the second-biggest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, was about 4.62 million barrels per day (bpd), according to a Reuters survey of OPEC output.

Right to self-defence: Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that the US had the right to defend itself by killing Soleimani.

“Just as Israel has the right of self-defence, the United States has exactly the same right,” Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office. “Soleimani is responsible for the death of American citizens and many other innocent people. He was planning more such attacks.” Netanyahu spoke on the airport tarmac in Greece after cutting short a trip abroad to fly back to Israel.

France, Netherlands issue warnings to citizens France urged its citizens in Iran on Friday to stay away from public gatherings and the Netherlands told Dutch nationals to leave Baghdad.

“Three days of mourning have been declared after the death of General Soleimani. In this context, we recommend French citizens to stay away from any gatherings and to behave with prudence and discretion and abstain from taking pictures in public spaces,” France’s embassy in Tehran said on Twitter.

Esmail Ghaani to succeed Soleimani

Iran’s supreme leader appointed the deputy commander of the Quds Force, Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani (pictured), as the replacement for Soleimani, state media reported.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement that programme of the Quds Force, the military unit responsible for projecting Iran’s influence via proxies across the Middle East, “will be unchanged from the time of his predecessor.” Ghaani became deputy commander of the Quds Force, the overseas arm of Iran”s Revolutionary Guards, in 1997 when Soleimani became the Force’s chief commander.
First Published: Sat, January 04 2020. 03:11 IST

How Donald Trump planned the drone strike with a tight circle of aides

The Trump administration had recently asked France and other allies to warn Tehran against killing Americans, according to one of the people. For the president, a red line had been crossed

Jennifer Jacobs & Jordan Fabian | Bloomberg  |  Washington 
Donald Trump, trump
US President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Battle Creek, Michigan. Photo: Reuters

Iranian general Qassem Soleimani haunted the US for more than two decades, a lethal adversary blamed for the deaths of hundreds of American troops in the Middle East.
Yet his stature as the second most powerful person in Iran made him almost untouchable in the eyes of Donald Trump’s predecessors.
That longstanding U.S. restraint ended in dramatic fashion Thursday with Trump’s order to launch a nighttime airstrike in Baghdad that killed Soleimani and drove tensions with Iran to the boiling point.
The president’s decision to target the powerful head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force came together swiftly, following the death of an American contractor in a Dec. 27 rocket attack by an Iranian-backed militia against a U.S. base in Iraq. Soon after the attack, Trump ordered a handful of his most senior aides to begin planning a strike on the Iranian general, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The Trump administration had recently asked France and other allies to warn Tehran against killing Americans, according to one of the people. For the president, a red line had been crossed.
Trump’s close circle of national security advisers was scattered across the country for the holidays -- Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney was in Key West; National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien was in California; and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo was in Washington, after cancelling planned travel to Ukraine and other countries on Jan. 1.
Vice President Mike Pence was in Annapolis, Maryland, for his daughter Charlotte’s wedding on Saturday, then at Sanibel Island in Florida.
The team used secure communications lines to repeatedly discuss the strike. On Thursday, a plane from the White House fleet was sent to California to ferry O’Brien to Palm Beach to be with Trump as the attack unfolded.
A small number of lawyers on the National Security Council were involved. Secrecy was paramount, as aides worried that one of Trump’s most fraught and consequential decisions wasn’t leaked ahead of the strike.
Risky attack

While Soleimani’s death has been cheered by many of Trump’s supporters and congressional allies, Democrats say the president’s decision risks endangering American diplomats and troops in the Middle East and beyond. Within the Trump administration, there is even concern about Iranian reprisals inside U.S. borders.
As his administration planned the strike, Trump engaged in what looked outwardly like his normal vacation activities. He traveled to his golf course near Mar-a-Lago every day since Christmas. Though on Tuesday, the day protesters the U.S. says were instigated by Iran stormed the American embassy in Baghdad, he was there only about 50 minutes.
After leaving the course early, he assailed the media for what he said were reports he was playing golf during the embassy siege, writing on Twitter that he had meetings “in various locations, while closely monitoring the U.S. Embassy situation in Iraq.”

Senator Lindsey Graham played golf with Trump on Monday and was briefed on the Soleimani strike the following day, Graham said in an interview Friday on Fox News. It’s not clear if the administration notified any other lawmaker in advance.
David Popp, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, declined to say whether the Kentucky Republican got a heads-up from the White House. No congressional Democrats were forewarned.
Over the weekend or earlier this week, Trump ordered elements of the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East. About 750 paratroopers were notified Tuesday that they would be deployed. Security was enhanced at Mar-a-Lago, according to two people familiar with the matter.
No foreign governments were notified of the attack ahead of time.
U.S. officials say that Soleimani was coming to Baghdad to prepare for further attacks on American forces. The U.S. and several other countries track his movements, and he was believed to have arrived in the Iraqi capital from a third country in the region -- either Lebanon or Syria.
A U.S. official said the military wasn’t directly monitoring Soleimani over the past week but launched a strike when intelligence indicated he’d be at the Baghdad airport -- in military lexicon a “target of opportunity.”

The U.S. would have known as soon as he landed in Baghdad, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Soleimani was the primary target of the strike, just outside the Baghdad airport, which also killed the leader of Kataib Hezbollah militia that attacked the American military base.
The White House opted against notifying Congress ahead of the attack out of concern for security, a person familiar with the matter said. The Department of Homeland Security, which is partially responsible for deterring potential Iranian retaliation on U.S. soil, was only notified of the Soleimani strike after the fact. White House communications officials were excluded from the planning.
‘Plotting to kill’

The president offered a partial explanation of his decision on Twitter on Friday, writing that Soleimani “killed or badly wounded thousands of Americans” and “was plotting to kill many more.”

He did not elaborate or provide any substantiation for the claim. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo later said in a CNN interview that Soleimani’s killing thwarted an “imminent attack,” again without providing further details.
Only on Friday, the day after the strike, did the State Department order American citizens to depart Iraq. Key members of Congress still hadn’t been briefed as of Friday morning, and the White House instead forwarded the Defense Department’s public statement to the offices of lawmakers who asked, according to three lawmakers.
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