PressTV Discussion on the Anniversary of the Soleimani Assassination (1-2-2022)

In this edition of Spotlight, we have conducted an interview with Syed Mohsin Abbas and Jim Kavanagh on the occasion of the second anniversary of the assassination of Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani by the United States.

Aftermath: The Iran War After The Soleimani Assassination

Common Dreams/Getty

“Praise be to God, who made our enemies fools.” – Ayatollah Khamenei 

The Killing

I’ve been writing and speaking for months about the looming danger of war with Iran, often to considerable skepticism.

In June, in an essay entitled “Eve of Destruction: Iran Strikes Back,” after the U.S. initiated its “maximum pressure” blockade of Iranian oil exports, I pointed out that “Iran considers that it is already at war,” and that the downing of the U.S. drone was a sign that “Iran is calling the U.S. bluff on escalation dominance.”

In an October essay, I pointed out that Trump’s last-minute calling off of the U.S. attack on Iran in June, his demurral again after the Houthi attack on Saudi oil facilities, and his announced withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria were seen as “catastrophic” and “a big win for Iran” by the Iran hawks in Israel and America whose efforts New York Times (NYT) detailed  in an important article, “The Secret History of the Push to Strike Iran.” I said, with emphasis, “It always goes to Iran,” and underlined that Trump’s restraint was particularly galling to hard-line zionist Republican Senators, and might have opened a path to impeachment. I cited the reported statement of a “veteran political consultant” that “The price of [Lindsey] Graham’s support… would be an eventual military strike on Iran.”

And in the middle of December, I went way out on a limb, in an essay suggesting a possible relation between preparations for war in Iran and the impeachment process. I pointed out that the strategic balance of forces between Israel and Iran had reached the point where Israel thinks it’s “necessary to take Iran down now,” in “the next six months,” before the Iranian-supported Axis of Resistance accrues even more power. I speculated that the need to have a more reliable and internationally-respected U.S. President fronting a conflict with Iran might be the unseen reason—behind the flimsy Articles of Impeachment—that explains why Pelosi and Schumer “find it so urgent to replace Trump before the election and why they think they can succeed in doing that.”

So, I was the guy chicken-littling about impending war with Iran.

But even I was flabbergasted by what Trump did. Absolutely gobsmacked. Killing Qassem Soleimani, Iranian general, leader of the Quds forces, and the most respected military leader in the Middle East? And Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, Iraqi commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) unit, Kataib Hezbollah? Did not see that coming. Rage. Fear. Sadness. Anxiety. A few days just to register that it really happened. To see the millions of people bearing witness to it. Yes, that happened.

Discussion of Iran Retaliation on The Critical Hour (1/7/2020)

Iran Vows Proportional Retaliation for US Soleimani Murder - This Isn't a Threat!

In response to Friday’s assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, the military commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, "Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made a rare appearance at a meeting of the government’s National Security Council to lay down the parameters for any retaliation. It must be a direct and proportional attack on American interests, he said, openly carried out by Iranian forces themselves," the New York Times reported Monday. Meanwhile, "Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Tuesday confirmed reports that the Trump administration has denied him a visa to enter the US for a United Nations Security Council meeting in New York this week," AFP reported. What are we to make of this, and what signals are being sent by both sides?
[Related articles: The Polemicist: Eve of Destruction: Iran Strikes Back,
The Empire Steps Back: Trump Withdraws From Syria – Impeachment Now Possible, Impeachment: What Lies Beneath?]

Discussion of the Soleimani Assassinaton on The Critical Hour (1/3/2020)

Is the US on the Brink of War With Iran? US Airstrike Kills Top Iranian General

It’s Friday, so that means it's panel time.

Qasem Soleimani, the son of a laborer who became Iran’s most revered military commander, was assassinated Friday in a targeted US drone air strike at the airport in Baghdad, Iraq. "Iranian politicians said, after his death, it would have been Soleimani’s dream to be 'martyred' by the US, Iran’s 'arch foe,' which he had relentlessly battled in the Middle East for the more than the two decades that he led the elite Quds force," the Financial Times reported. One of the fiercest military commanders in Iran in recent decades, the 62-year-old had long masterminded Iran’s support for Shia militant groups. "He was so close to Iran’s supreme leader that he saw him as a son.