The US forgets: Soleimani was once on its side

In Afghanistan and Syria, against al-Qaeda and ISIS, Soleimani once helped the American cause

Now his death at US hands is uniting America’s enemies against it

Kuldip Singh

Published: 8 Jan, 2020

The aftermath of the US strike on Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. Photo: AFP

With Iran launching missile attacks on US-led forces in Iraq early on Wednesday, it is all too clear that its threats of retaliation against Donald Trump’s assassination of Major General Qassim Soleimani were not the empty bluster some in America had assumed.

The question the United States should now be asking is how this came to pass: it has seldom been mentioned since his assassination, but Soleimani once fought on the same side as American forces. In killing him, Trump appears to have perhaps shot himself in the foot.

Before we examine this earlier marriage of convenience, it is worth a quick recap of how we came to this juncture. On January 3, Soleimani, the chief of Iran’s al-Quds Force since 1998, was killed at Baghdad’s international airport in a US drone strike. Also killed was Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Popular Mobilization Forces, an Iran-backed militia, and possibly, deputy Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem. That Soleimani was landing just a few kilometres from US military bases in Baghdad perhaps hints at an impression that he felt he would be able to keep his visit secret – or that the US would not target him. But given the escalation in recent months, it is obvious major operations were being planned against US assets in Iraq.

Soon after, the Pentagon stated that President Donald Trump had ordered the killing of Soleimani to “thwart further attacks on US military personnel”.

A Houthi rebel in Yemen with a poster attached to his waist of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. Photo: Reuters

This itself was unusual: Soleimani was not the leader of any terrorist entity but the head of a state organisation. Still, the US is justifying the strike by pointing to the March 2007 United Nations Security Council sanctions on Soleimani for supporting terrorism and selling Iranian weapons overseas, the US 2011 designation of Soleimani (along with other officials) as terrorists, and the April 2019 designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation – the first time the US had declared a branch of a foreign military thus.

JAMES BOND, LADY GAGA IN ONE

Soleimani was an iconic figure among Shias. A survey in 2018 by IranPoll and the University of Maryland found Soleimani had a popularity rating of 83 per cent, beating President Hassan Rowhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Former CIA analyst Kenneth Pollack, in a profile for Time’s 100 most influential people in 2017, wrote, “to Middle Eastern Shiites, he is James Bond, Erwin Rommel and Lady Gaga rolled into one”.

Iran’s Supreme Leader had once labelled him “a living martyr of the revolution”. A zealous supporter of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, his personal courage, simplicity, strategic acumen and quiet charisma had led to an image of a warrior-philosopher who stood as a wall between Iran and its enemies.

Tamir Pardo, the former head of Mossad, opined “the Arab spring in the Middle East, and later the fight against Islamic State, turned Soleimani from a shadow figure into a major player in the geopolitics of the region.”

The US however, saw him as leading a terrorist campaign internationally and has attributed around 20 per cent of US combat deaths in Iraq directly or indirectly to al-Quds Force and the Revolutionary Guards.

Iran-US tensions soar as thousands mourn slain general Qassem Soleimani

There is a view that Trump, facing impeachment, ordered this attack to improve his standing in the 2020 election and give the image of being a “decisive leader” (although he had, in his presidential campaign declared that the Iraq war was a ‘disaster’, and the US could have spent ‘those trillions’ in rebuilding US).

But it is also true that post-Cold War, there are few who have challenged the US as the al-Quds Force and the Revolutionary Guards did, or shaped the Middle East as Soleimani did.

He built the “Shiite Crescent” in the Middle East. In the 1990s, he guided Hezbollah against the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon, and in conjunction with Imad Mugniyah, Hezbollah’s military commander, conducted skilful guerilla warfare, leading to Israel’s withdrawal in May 2000.

The al-Quds Force also troubled Israel by supporting Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. In 2003, the US attacked Iraq – which led to concerns that Iran may be targeted next for regime change. Soleimani then utilised the al-Quds Force and Shia militias to thwart US military operations in Iraq, and later, pushed the US-approved Iraqi regime to decline an agreement allowing US troops to stay beyond 2011. In Syria, he spearheaded a massive operation that ensured the regime of President Bashar al-Assad survived.

ONCE ON SAME SIDE

However, Soleimani and the al-Quds Force and the Revolutionary Guards had also cooperated with the US on several occasions.

Prior to 9/11, Iran had been backing the Northern Alliance fighters in
Afghanistan against the Sunni Taliban. Keen to defeat the Taliban post-9/11, the al-Quds Force with US approval continued its support of the Northern Alliance (Ahmad Shah Masood, leader of Northern Alliance, was killed two days prior to 9/11) and provided maps of Taliban bases in Afghanistan.

US Marines guard the US embassy compound in Baghdad, Iraq, following the killing of Iran's Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani. Photo: EPA

In addition, it helped in the rounding-up and arrest of several al-Qaeda figures in Iran. The Bonn Agreement of December 2001, endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 1383, was reportedly reached with considerable Iranian diplomatic assistance – it led to Hamid Karzai (a Pashtun; opposed by the Northern Alliance) being appointed as interim head. At that juncture, there were murmurs in Iran that perhaps, it should rethink its relationship with the US – that is until January 2002, when president George W. Bush branded Iran as part of an “Axis of Evil”.

In 2006, after the Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari fell from favour, the US began vetting replacements to check if they had any relationship with Iran. They homed onto Nouri al-Maliki – after which Soleimani worked discretely to prop up al-Maliki. He also helped secure a ceasefire between radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s militia and the US-backed Iraqi government, and also asked Sadr to stop attacking US targets in Baghdad. 

This was followed by the conflict against Islamic State, or ISIS, in the Iraq-Syria theatre – in this, both the US and Soleimani fought on the same side. Soleimani was central in the retaking of Tikrit in early 2015 and defeat of ISIS.

Given Soleimani’s stature and the strategic expanse of his work, it should not be surprising that the killing has drawn retaliation from Iran. Retaliation by its proxies in the Middle East and Levant can also be expected – as can a deterioration in the security of the broader Middle East region. Iran’s missiles may be just the beginning.

Kuldip Singh is a retired Brigadier from the Indian Army. He was formerly head of the defence wing in the National Security Council Secretariat of India

REAL CHEMTRAIL

Plane dumps fuel over schools near Los Angeles airport

Media captionThe Delta Airlines flight reportedly had to return to the airport shortly after takeoff

A passenger plane has dumped fuel over several schools as it made an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport.

At least 60 people, many of them children, were treated for skin irritation and breathing problems.

Fuel may be dumped in emergency landings, but only over designated areas and at a high altitude, aviation rules stipulate.

The Delta Airlines flight returned to the airport due to an engine issue.

All the children and adults treated following the dumping incident were connected with at least six local schools. All the injuries are said to be minor.

At Park Elementary School in Cudahy, some 16 miles (26km) east of the airport, two classes were outside when the fuel was released.

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Elizabeth Alcantar, mayor of Cudahy, told the newspaper: "I'm very upset. This is an elementary school, these are small children."

Delta Airlines confirmed in a statement that the passenger plane had released fuel to reduce its landing weight.

Allen Kenitzer, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration told Reuters news agency: "The FAA is thoroughly investigating the circumstances behind this incident. There are special fuel-dumping procedures for aircraft operating into and out of any major US airport.

"These procedures call for fuel to be dumped over designated unpopulated areas, typically at higher altitudes so the fuel atomises and disperses before it reaches the ground."

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Australia fires: The farmers burying their own cattle

By Tim McDonaldBBC News, Corryong, Australia 14 January 2020Share this with FacebooShare this with Messenger

Travis and Belinda Attree came back to a scorched property after the fire     Image captio

Belinda Attree walks towards a ditch in a paddock that has been blackened by Australia's massive bushfires.

"We'll get as close as we can without probably getting a bit sick," she says.

In the ditch - now a grave - are 20 dead cattle and a kangaroo. All were badly burned when the fire swept through Corryong, about half-way between Melbourne and Sydney.

Warning: Some may find the following pictures of dead animals distressing

Belinda, her husband Travis, and their children made a terrifying last-minute escape as the fire swung around unexpectedly and roared through their property.

But when they returned after the fire-front had passed, they found 11 dead cows, and others that were too injured to keep.

"It destroys you, mate, to shoot your own cattle," Travis says. "I take pride in my cattle, to have them in good condition. And to do this, it's just not right."

Image captionAgriculture Minister Bridget McKenzie estimates 100,000 cattle and sheep will be lost in this season's fires

Travis Attree has put down cows before. It's an unpleasant reality of farming. But he has never faced anything like this.

He tears up a bit. They've lost lots of other things too: all their hay, the hay shed, another shed full of football memorabilia, two boats, and an all-terrain vehicle.

But losing animals hurts the most. When asked why he hasn't covered the animals' grave, the answer is simple.

"My neighbour hasn't found all of his," he says. "There could be more to go in there yet."

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Belinda recorded a video as they returned to the property. In it, she tearfully follows their injured herd through the choking haze, knowing they won't have any choice but to euthanise many of the stock.

"They must have just been in so much pain," she says. "And that's what's hard. What's really really hard."

Much of their property is an ashen moonscape. There's nothing for their remaining livestock to eat.

They have rolls of hay on their front lawn, all of them donated. But they've already sent 30 of their animals to the abattoir, and more might go.

Image captionTravis assessing the damage on his farm

Marilyn and Neil Clydsdale are cattle breeders who have 400 breeding stock across their properties near Corryong. They've lost at least 30, including three out of four bulls they raised from birth.

"During the firestorm, one of them ended up on our back porch, absolutely frizzled," Marilyn says,

Neil has only just arrived back at his farm with a truck loaded with round bales. He picks one up with a tractor, and with his grandson and his cattle dog Ned, heads out past dead, bloated cattle laid out in a line.

The tractor ambles up the hill, and stops next to the livestock that survived. Neil walks around and unhooks the bale, which unravels down the hill, and the grateful cattle tuck in.

But he still has to figure out what to do with them.

"We either have to engage in a very heavy feeding regime, sell off the livestock, or locate the livestock somewhere else," he says.

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He's a collector of antique farm machinery, and it's this social network that has generated an unexpected lifeline.

A collector friend found them a property owner who wants an overgrown paddock eaten out. They'll pay to truck their remaining livestock down there, but otherwise it's free. It's a tremendous stroke of luck.

But the day isn't done with Neil yet. As he feeds his cows, he notices the large back tire on his tractor is hanging off the rim of the wheel.

It's flat and it's irretrievable. He had a spare in a shed in town. But that burned down and it wasn't insured. It's another A$1,500 (£800; $1,030) expense on a list that just keeps growing.

It's demoralising. An insult on top of injury. Neil looks a little glum, but there's no time to think about it. There's too much work to be done.

Image copyrightNEIL CLYDSDALE

Rob Miller is a dairy farmer on the south coast of New South Wales with about 1,200 acres. He's been hit twice by bushfire over the past few months, and they have burnt out about two-thirds of his land.

"I've never had two fires hit me ever in my life before," he says.

Dairy Farmers Australia, an industry body, says around 70 dairy farms have been hit in this year's fires, including 20-25 each in New South Wales and Victoria, and maybe 12 in South Australia.

Rob thinks he has lost up to 20% of his stock. He's still figuring it out. In some places the stock may have wandered onto a neighbour's property.

Some of his dairy cows were kept cool under sprinklers. But for many others, the heat and the stress have just been too much. Cows that are calving have been affected too.

"We've had four or five abort in the last 48 hours," he says.

Image captionThe bushfires have razed both inland and coastal regions across Australia this summer

He'll need to bring in 25 tons of feed a day to feed them all. At the moment, with all the road closures, that's impossible.

The cows have been on ration feeding. He'll have to get rid of many more. He'll export some of his lower quality stock to Japan when he's able.

There will be huge decisions over the coming week about what to do with his stock. He's filled with a sense of dread about the rest of the season.

"I'm on an edge. I know if I take my finger off the pulse, something terrible could happen," he says.

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If there's one thing everyone agrees on, it's that there's a desperate need for rain, both to put out the massive fires and to rehabilitate the farms.

Last year was Australia's hottest and driest on record. The tinder dry conditions fuelled the fires. And the recovery is also likely to stretch water resources, because re-growing forests will suck up huge amounts of water.

"Our catchment is diabolically impacted by this," says Helen Haines, the independent MP for Indi, which takes in Corryong, as well as the headwaters of the Murray, Australia's largest river system.

And while cattle farmers have been hit hard, they're certainly not the only agricultural or primary industry that's been affected.

Already, Ms Haines says, wine growers, pine plantations and hop growers have all been hit. She expects the impact will be huge, and it will be national.

After all, the fires stretch from Victoria all the way up to Queensland, and there's almost two months left in the fire season.

Media captionThe race to save animal casualties injured in Australia's bushfires

Neil Clydsdale is 70. He has worked at the same property since 1984. He thinks many other local farmers will simply give up and do something else. Personally, he's thinking of retiring.

"In terms of financial and emotional stress on people, I think this is going to take a number of years for the community to recover," he says. "It's horrendous."

But not everyone feels the same way. The Attrees are hopeful that with a little luck and a little rain, they'll be restocking by May. Besides, they don't know what they'd do otherwise.

"There's no other choice for us," says Belinda. "We would never choose to leave. This is us."

The Coffin Club: People meeting to make their own coffins 
Meet The Coffin Club of Rotorua - New Zealanders who get together every week to make their own coffins. It's an idea that's spread around the world, with coffin clubs springing up across the UK, the US and other countries beyond. 
 Video produced by Ellen Tsang and Mauricio Olmedo-Perez.

James Murdoch's attack on News Corp and Fox News has not been discussed by board, director says


Peter Barnes says board has not talked about Rupert Murdoch’s son’s attack on Fox News and News Corp’s climate coverage


Ben Butler and Anne Davies

Wed 15 Jan 2020

 

James and Kathryn Murdoch said they were frustrated by coverage of the climate crisis by Fox News and News Corp. Photograph: Neil Hall/Reuters


The lead independent director of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, Peter Barnes, says the media group’s board has yet to discuss James Murdoch’s attack on the company over its stance on the climate crisis.

On Wednesday James Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch’s son and a News Corp director, issued a joint statement with his wife, Kathryn Murdoch, in which the couple said they were frustrated by coverage of the climate crisis by Fox News and News Corp.

“They are particularly disappointed with the ongoing denial among the news outlets in Australia given obvious evidence to the contrary,” a spokesperson for the couple said.

The Australian says it accepts climate science, so why does it give a platform to 'outright falsehoods'?

Read more

James Murdoch’s intervention – a rare attack by a company director on his own group’s operations – added fuel to an already raging debate in Australia over News Corp’s coverage of global heating and the deadly bushfires that have devastated the country’s eastern seaboard.

Shareholder activists said the move added to the pressure on News Corp over the climate emergency and could lead to investor attacks on management at the company’s annual meeting later this year.


It also appears to reignite a succession battle between James Murdoch and his brother, Lachlan, that seemed resolved in 2018 when Lachlan was given important executive positions within the family empire as part of a restructure of the group.

News Corp itself battened down the hatches on Wednesday, with management in Sydney and New York declining to comment on the Murdoch scion’s comments.

The atmosphere inside the company’s Australian headquarters on Holt Street in Sydney was guarded on Wednesday as staff grappled with the unexpected attack, News Corp sources said.

However, Barnes, a former executive with tobacco company Philip Morris who now serves as the lead independent director on News Corp’s board, told the Guardian he was aware of media reports of James Murdoch’s statement.

As lead director, Barnes has an important role on the News Corp board that includes acting as a conduit between News Corp and investors, helping to set the pay of executives and acting as chair of the audit committee.

Speaking on Wednesday afternoon, Australian time, he said he had no comment on James Murdoch’s statement.

“What I’ve read in the papers is breaking news and we don’t meet again until the middle of February,” he said. “As you would no doubt know, this board has quite a lot of international people.”

In addition to James Murdoch, his brother, Lachlan Murdoch, and father, Rupert Murdoch, who is executive chairman, News Corp’s board includes the former president of Spain, José María Aznar, Ana Paula Pessoa, who is a director of Brazilian artificial intelligence company Kunumi, and former US senator Kelly Ayotte.

“I understand from the papers that James has made a statement but I have no comment to make because I haven’t made contact with them [the other directors],” Barnes said.

Brynn O’Brien, who heads the the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, said the shareholder activist group currently held no shares in News Corp.

“The pressure’s mounting on them on climate change, so let’s see,” she said. “It’s a very unusual situation where you have a board member on the record, through a spokesperson, attacking the governance and operations of the company.”

Shareholder activist Stephen Mayne, a former News Corp journalist who has repeatedly attacked the company over issues including a two-class share structure that cements the control of the Murdoch family, said an “obvious next step” would be to put up a resolution on climate change at the next AGM, which is likely to be held in October or November.

“I certainly think there’s a big opportunity for the full symphony of shareholder resolutions and engagement,” he said.

Spokesmen for News Corp in Sydney and New York declined to comment on James Murdoch’s comments.

The Sydney representative said the company stood by comments made by News Corp Australia chairman, Michael Miller, on Friday in response to a leaked email to him in which an employee accused News Corp papers, including the Australian, the Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun, of spreading misinformation by focusing on arson as the cause of the bushfires, rather than climate change.

Miller said News Corp “does not deny climate change or the gravity of its threat”.

“Our coverage has recognised that Australia is having a serious conversation about climate change and how to respond to it,” he said. “However, it has also reflected there are a variety of views and opinions about the current fire crisis. The role of arsonists and policies that may have contributed to the spread of fire are, therefore, legitimate stories to report in the public interest.”

Even this week Telegraph columnists were still blogging about the “woke greenies” who were responsible for the fires and “the distorted debate.”

In his Monday Daily Telegraph blog, Tim Blair quoted Breitbart columnist James Delingpole: “Where this Australian bushfire tragedy is concerned, no one deserves more opprobrium than the greens whose poisonous, anti-human, anti-science, anti-history ideology has turned what could have been a minor inconvenience into a full-on disaster.”

He went on to link to Delingpole’s column, whose central thesis was that the fires had nothing to do with climate change.

“The dry, hot conditions which have exacerbated these fires are weather, not climate,” he writes. “Australia, a hot, dry country, has been here many, many times before.”


James Murdoch criticises father's news outlets for climate crisis denial

On Wednesday, columnist Miranda Devine stridently counselled Scott Morrison to resist a royal commission into the bushfires, arguing that “global forces are using Australia’s fires as propaganda to drum up support for their climate agenda”.

Measured by loss of life, Devine argues the 2009 Victorian fires were a far bigger tragedy. Victoria had a royal commission into those fires.

“Even if you accept the proposition that humans can dial down the earth’s temperature by not using fossil fuels or eating meat, Australia creates a puny 1.3% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions,” she argued. “Morrison could capitulate to the carbonistas, and close down Australia, but it won’t stop the bushfires.

“Blaming climate change is a cynical diversion from the criminal negligence of governments which have tried to buy green votes by locking up vast tracts of land as national parks yet failed to spend the money to control ground fuel and maintain fire trails.”

A 2013 study of News Corp’s coverage of climate change found almost half its comment pieces expressed doubt about climate science. It has continued to publish climate deniers whose columns have been comprehensively debunked by scientists.

Trump administration shares no blame for downing of Flight PS752, says top Republican

'There's no doubt where the blame lies' - House minority leader Kevin McCarthy

Katie Simpson · CBC News · Posted: Jan 14, 2020 12:54 PM ET | Last Updated: 9 hours ago

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., arrives for a briefing on last week's targeted killing of Iran's senior military commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020, (Jose Luis Magana/The Associated Press)

"The president made the right decision," House minority leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters today in Washington, D.C.

"There is no blame here for America. America stood up once again for freedom. Iran went past a red line they had not gone past before, killing a U.S. citizen. Iran shot down an innocent, commercial airliner. There's no doubt where the blame lies."

In an interview with Global National's Dawna Friesen on Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau indirectly blamed rising tensions in the Middle East for the destruction last week of Flight PS752 just after takeoff outside Tehran.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attends a candlelight vigil in Ottawa for victims of the Ukraine International Airlines crash in Tehran on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

Iranian leaders admitted Saturday that Iran's Revolutionary Guard shot down the Boeing 737-800 using surface-to-air missiles. Of the 176 people on board, 57 were Canadians.

"I think if there were no tensions, if there was no escalation recently in the region, those Canadians would be right now home with their families," Trudeau said.

"This is something that happens when you have conflict and ... war. Innocents bear the brunt of it. And it is a reminder why all of us need to work so hard on de-escalation, on moving forward to reduce tensions and find a pathway that doesn't involve further conflict and killing."

Iran and the U.S. lurched to the brink of open war when a U.S. drone strike killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani Jan. 3 in Baghdad.

International observers and Trump's domestic critics argue the sudden decision to kill another country's military leader destabilized the security climate in the region — making miscalculations like the one that apparently led to the downing of Flight PS752 more likely.

A rescue worker shows pictures of a girl recovered from the plane crash site in Shahedshahr, southwest of the capital Tehran, Iran, Jan. 8, 2020. (Ebrahim Noroozi/The Associated Press)

Asked whether the administration of U.S. President Donald should have warned Canada of the plan to kill Soleimani, McCarthy ducked the question by citing Iranian acts of aggression in the region, including an Iranian-backed assault on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad in late December and a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base that killed an American civilian contractor.

"I think Soleimani should've been killed," he said. "I think if he had been held accountable for his actions for decades before ... the American would be alive. And Trudeau did not have to mention Iran because the facts are purely on Iran ... Trudeau is right about what Iran had been doing."

Bruce Heyman, who served as U.S. ambassador to Canada under President Barack Obama, tweeted today that Trudeau was correct to state that "escalation" made the crash more likely.

Heyman told CBC News that the Trump administration "owed Canada advance notice of this action."

"[With] any ally, your relationship is based on trust ... you rely on your ally to communicate with you, to collaborate with you, to work as a team," he said. "This fog of war was created as a result of the escalating tension that was a direct result of the targeting of Qassem Soleimani."

A senior Canadian government official, speaking on background today, cautioned against anyone interpreting Trudeau's comments as the prime minister blaming Trump for the crash. The official said the PM's message since the crash has been a consistent call for de-escalation by all the involved parties.

"That's not a single finger pointed at any one [president]," the senior official said.

Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican congressman from Nebraska, told CBC News that while U.S. officials "should have tried" to warn Canada in advance of the strike against Soleimani, he blamed the operation's "short-notice time frame" for the lack of a heads-up.

"Our heart goes out to our Canadian friends because we know how heartbreaking that is," he said. "I don't think putting the responsibility on President Trump was correct. The real responsibility was Iran. Iran shot down that airliner.

"The Russians are the ones who are selling Iran high-end surface-to-air missile equipment that they do not know how to operate ... So you can put some of this on Russia ..."

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Rep. William Keating, a Democrat representing Massachusetts, said the U.S. should be "working with our allies" in the region, including Canada.

"Well, the Iranians are responsible for that shootdown of the plane. They're responsible, that's the reality of it," he said. "But do we want more tragedies?

"My heart breaks for those families that lost their lives in that terrible, terrible incident."

In his conversation with Global News, Trudeau was asked to react to a tweet from Maple Leaf Foods CEO Michael McCain blaming the "narcissist in Washington" for creating the anxious climate that led to the destruction of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752.

"I've heard many Canadians express a range of, of conclusions, of emotions, outrage, grief, loss," Trudeau said. "And it doesn't surprise me to see a range of conclusions and messages coming from all Canadians ..."

And while the PM acknowledged there isn't "a lot of trust" in the Canada-Iran relationship, the regime's admission of fault "shows there is a willingness to move forward and take responsibility."

The unnamed Trudeau government official said Trudeau has been treading carefully in public since this crisis began. Even after reports began to circulate suggesting Iranian involvement in the crash, the PM suggested that the missiles may have been fired in error — a move calculated to give Tehran room to "get to the truth" without having to be "dragged to the truth," said the official.

Outgoing Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer today called on the Trudeau government to "immediately" list Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. The unnamed government official said doing so now might interfere with efforts to investigate the crash and secure the return of Canadian victims' remains.

With files from David Cochrane