Authors: Graham E. Fuller
Organization/Publisher: Graham E. Fuller
Affiliation: Former C.I.A. Official
Date/Place: January 4, 2019, Vancouver, Canada.
Type of Literature: Analysis
Word Count: 1289
Link: http://grahamefuller.com/us-foreign-policy-by-assassination/
Keywords: Assassination in Foreign Policy, Soleimani, Iran, Middle East
Brief:
The assassination of General Qassem Soleimani by the U.S. and heated exchange of words between Tehran and Washington, D.C. has further deteriorated the Middle Eastern geopolitics. Soleimani was not only the head of Al-Quds force but has been viewed as the second most influential person in Iran after the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. The author explained the significance of this assassination of Soleimani in Iran by forecasting the U.S. reaction if the Secretary of Defense, Chairman of Joint Chiefs, or any regional commander of America, would be assassinated by Iran. He also rejected the justifications regarding Soleimani’s assassination, coming from American foreign policy-making circles by stating it as self-delusion. Soleimani played a key role in containing the American influence in Iraq, because Tehran knows it is next in line after the Iraqi invasion in 2003. Furthermore, the author explains the hypocrisy of the U.S. State Department, which accuses Soleimani for the killing of thousands of American troops in Iraq but legitimizes its own mass murder of innocent civilians during the unjustified Iraqi invasion by the U.S. The author is skeptical about the future of the Middle East due to expected Iranian retaliation. The U.S. has constituted an undiplomatic and illegal precedent by killing a high-profile General of Iran. More assassinations of this kind from either side cannot be ruled out, because the U.S. no longer holds a monopoly on violence as its Pentagon-initiated drone program is now followed by other States.
By: Muhammad Taimoor Bin Tanveer, CIGA Research Associate
