“This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans,” the Pentagon statement said late Thursday. “The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world.”
In Iran, state television interrupted its programing to announce General Suleimani’s death, with the news anchor reciting the Islamic prayer for the dead — “From God we came and to God we return” — beside a picture of the general.
Hawkish Iran experts said the strike would be deeply painful for Iran’s leadership. “This is devastating for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, the regime and Khamenei’s regional ambitions,” said Mark Dubowitz, the chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, referring to Ayatollah Khamenei.
“For 23 years, he has been the equivalent of the J.S.O.C. commander, the C.I.A. director and Iran’s real foreign minister,” Mr. Dubowitz said, using an acronym for the United States’ Joint Special Operations Command. “He is irreplaceable and indispensable” to Iran’s military establishment.
For those same reasons, other regional analysts warned, Iran is likely to respond with an intensity of dangerous proportions.
“From Iran’s perspective, it is hard to imagine a more deliberately provocative act,” said Robert Malley, the president and chief executive of the International Crisis Group. “And it is hard to imagine that Iran will not retaliate in a highly aggressive manner.”
“Whether President Trump intended it or not, it is, for all practical purposes, a declaration of war,” added Mr. Malley, who served as White House coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa and the gulf region in the Obama administration.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/02/world/middleeast/qassem-soleimani-iraq-iran-attack.html
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