By akademiotoelektronik, 14/08/2022

United States: With Soleimani, Trump took the risks that his predecessors had avoided |IMAZ PRESS Réunion: Reunion news in photos

The predecessors of M.Trump feared that the elimination of Qassem Soleimani, head of the Quds force of the Revolutionary Guards, in charge of Iran's external operations, causes a new war in a region where the American army is already mired in Afghanistan and inIraq.

But after three years of skirmishes with the pro-Iranian factions in the region, which culminated by an attack this week against the United States Embassy in Baghdad, the American president concluded that he was better to take this risk.If the Pentagon, which killed Soleimani by a "precision shot of a drone" near Baghdad airport, had not acted, "we would have been guilty of negligence," said the head of state on Friday-Mejor, General Mark Milley.

The United States had "irrefutable" information according to which Soleimani prepared much greater violent actions, he added."The risk posed by inaction surpassed that posed by the action".No details were provided on the attacks that Soleimani would have planned but a senior official of the Ministry of Defense said that the operation had been precipitated by chance.Soleimani "arrived at the airport and we had an opportunity," said the official who requested anonymity."Based on the president's instructions, we have seized it".

-Does the end justify the means?-

Many American elected officials and experts warned that it was an escalation of tensions with Iran which could lead the two countries to the open war.Killing Soleimani is a heavy decision, underlined Max Boot, an expert from the Council on Foreign Relations, in a platform published by the Washington Post."His death made him the most important foreign military leader assassinated by the United States since the plane carrying Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was shot in 1943," he said in reference to the Japanese architect ofThe attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

The elected Democrat Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA analyst expert from Shiite movements who worked in the White House and Pentagon during the administrations of George W.Bush and Barack Obama, recalled that these two American presidents were wondering about the opportunity to kill Soleimani."What has always prevented two presidents, a republican and a democrat, from taking Soleimani himself for target was a simple question," she tweeted."Did a strike worth the probable reprisals it implied and the possibility of taking us into a conflict?""The two administrations for which I worked had concluded that the end did not justify the means," she added."The Trump administration has made a different calculation".

The Obama Administration "has never underestimated the importance of the role" of Soleimani, and in particular its influence beyond the Middle East, confirmed to AFP Ned Price, which also advised the direct predecessor ofDonald Trump."His grip also extends to the west," added Mr..Price, stressing that Quds force can operate in Europe, South America, and even in the United States, where it was accused of having tried in 2011 of assassinating the Ambassador of Saudi Saudi Arabia.

- become "too dangerous" -

Donald Trump took the opposite view of Barack Obama by withdrawing in 2018 from the International Agreement on the Iranian nuclear program negotiated by his predecessor, rather choosing to exert "maximum pressure" on the Tehran regime through'a severe economic sanctions regime.Tehran replied by trying to block maritime traffic in the Gulf, by shooting an American drone above the Strait of Ormuz and bombing oil installations in Saudi Saudi Arabia.

Donald Trump's policy has essentially benefited the most radical elements of the Iranian regime, such as Soleimani, Gil Barndollar, the Defense Priorities Center for AFP, told AFP."It only increased his influence in Iran".

While in the past, the risk of killing Soleimani had been tried too high, the Iranian general had become too dangerous, explains Will Fulton, an independent Iran expert."His attributions and influence had expanded and the Trump administration has undoubtedly decided that the influence of Soleimani and his ability to inspire events in the region had become too serious a threat not to answer them".AFP