“The acting Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi […] revealed that Soleimani had traveled to Baghdad to deliver a message back from Iran to Saudi Arabia about a proposal to lower tensions in the region, that Soleimani was to meet with the Prime Minister the very morning he was assassinated, and — most crucially — that days prior Trump had asked the Iraqi Prime Minister to “play the mediator’s role” between the U.S. and Iran.”
“This revelation blows apart the Pentagon and White House’s claim that they took “decisive defensive action” to preempt an attack orchestrated by Soleimani.”
“This means the Pentagon and the White House fully knew, when they ordered the airstrike to kill him, that Soleimani was traveling to Baghdad in a diplomatic capacity as an emissary of Iran, and that he had a meeting planned with the Prime Minister to discuss broader de-escalation.”
“The source of this revelation — Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi — was until very recently seen as a close ally, if not proxy, of Washington.”
“But the airstrikes against Soleimani and Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units leader Abu Mahdi Al-Mohandes changed the U.S.-Iraqi dynamic instantly. The Prime Minister called the airstrike against his guest a “political assassination” that Iraq could not accept as an extreme violation of national sovereignty. In an official statement, he explained that “the two martyrs were huge symbols of the victory” over ISIS — a sentiment shared by a wide range of Iraqi politicians and religious figures, including many who had previously collaborated with U.S. occupation forces.”
“Until we receive further elaboration, the Prime Minister’s revelation to Parliament leaves in question whether the Trump White House actually helped schedule the meeting between Soleimani and Abdul-Mahdi under a pretense of peace talks and then executed Soleimani when he arrived for it — a mafia-style setup and assassination. Was the Saudi monarchy in on the plot, despite its claims that it did not know of the airstrike beforehand, or was Washington trying to sabotage a Saudi-Iranian peace initiative?”
Read more: BREAKING: Soleimani was in Iraq to ease regional tensions; then Trump said ‘Kill him’
2021-week25
