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<\/div>\nThe bombshell facts were delivered by caretaker Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, during an extraordinary, historic parliamentary session in Baghdad on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani had flown into Baghdad on a normal carrier flight, carrying a diplomatic passport. He had been sent by Tehran to deliver, in person, a reply to a message from Riyadh on de-escalation across the Middle East. Those negotiations had been requested by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
So Baghdad was officially mediating between Tehran and Riyadh, at the behest of Trump. And Soleimani was a messenger. Adil Abdul-Mahdi was supposed to meet Soleimani at 8:30 am, Baghdad time, last Friday. But a few hours before the appointed time, Soleimani died as the object of a targeted assassination at Baghdad airport.<\/p>\n
Let that sink in \u2013 for the annals of 21st<\/sup>\u00a0century diplomacy. Once again: it does not matter whether the assassination order was issued by President Trump, the US Deep State or the usual suspects \u2013 or\u00a0 when. After all, the Pentagon had Soleimani on its sights for a long time, but always refused to go for the final hit, fearing devastating consequences.<\/p>\n Now, the fact is that the United States government \u2013 on foreign soil, as a guest nation \u2013 has assassinated a diplomatic envoy who was on an official mission that had been requested by the United States government itself.<\/p>\n Baghdad will formally denounce this behavior to the United Nations. However, it would be idle to expect UN outrage about the US killing of a diplomatic envoy. International law was dead even before 2003\u2019s Shock and Awe.<\/p>\n Mahdi Army is back<\/strong><\/p>\n Under these circumstances, it\u2019s no wonder the Iraqi Parliament approved a non-binding resolution asking the Iraqi government to expel foreign troops by cancelling a request for military assistance from the US.<\/p>\n Translation: Yankee go home.<\/p>\n Predictably, Yankee will refuse the demand. Trump: \u201cIf they do ask us to leave, if we don\u2019t do it in a very friendly basis, we will charge them sanctions like they\u2019ve never seen before ever. It\u2019ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame.\u201d<\/p>\n US troops already are set to remain in Syria illegally \u2013 to \u201ctake care of the oil.\u201d Iraq, with its extraordinary energy reserves, is an even more serious case. Leaving Iraq means Trump, US neocons and the Deep State lose control, directly and indirectly, of the oil for good. And, most of all, lose the possibility of endless interfering against the Axis of Resistance \u2013 Iran-Iraq-Syria-Hezbollah.<\/p>\n Apart from the Kurds \u2013 bought and paid for \u2013 Iraqis all across the political spectrum are tuned in to public opinion: this occupation is over. That includes Muqtada al-Sadr, who reactivated the Mahdi Army and wants the US embassy shut down for good.<\/p>\n As I saw it live at the time, the Mahdi Army was the Pentagon\u2019s nemesis, especially around 2003-04. The only reason the Mahdi Army were appeased was because Washington offered Sadr Saddam Hussein, the man who killed his father, for summary execution without trial. For all his political inconsistencies, Sadr is immensely popular in Iraq.<\/p>\n Soleimani pysop<\/strong><\/p>\n Hezbollah\u2019s secretary-general Sayyed Nasrallah, in a\u00a0very detailed speech<\/a>, goes to the jugular on the meaning of Soleimani\u2019s assassination.<\/p>\n Nasrallah tells how the US identified the strategic role of Soleimani in every battlefield \u2013 Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iran. He tells how Israel saw Soleimani as an \u201cexistential threat\u201d but \u201cdared not to kill him. They could have killed him in Syria, where his movements were public.\u201d<\/p>\n So the decision to assassinate Soleimani in public, as Nasrallah reads it, was a psyop. And the \u201cfair retribution\u201d is \u201cending the American military presence in our region.\u201d All US military personnel will be kept on their toes, watching their backs, full time. This has nothing to do with American citizens: \u201cI\u2019m not talking about picking on them, and picking on them is forbidden to us.\u201d<\/p>\n With a single stroke, the assassination of Soleimani has managed to unite not only Iraqis but Iranians, and in fact the whole Axis of Resistance. On myriad levels, Soleimani could be described as the 21st<\/sup>\u00a0century Persian Che Guevara: the Americans have made sure he\u2019s\u00a0 metastasizing into the Muslim Resistance Che.<\/p>\n Oil war<\/strong><\/p>\n No tsunami of pedestrian US mainstream media PR will be able to disguise a massive strategic blunder \u2013 not to mention yet another blatantly illegal targeted assassination.<\/p>\n Yet this might as well have been a purposeful blunder. Killing Soleimani does prove that Trump, the Deep State and the usual suspects all agree on the essentials: there can be no entente cordiale between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Divide and rule remains the norm.<\/p>\nTrump Tries Real Hard to Start a War for Israel. \u201cHe Should be Impeached Because He is a War Criminal\u201d<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n