President Donald Trump has been accused of committing a war crime after claims that Iranian General Qassem Soleimani was lured to Iraq, where he was assassinated by a U.S. drone strike on Friday.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi stated that he was due to meet the elite Quds force commander after he landed in Baghdad for talks that had been agreed to at Trump’s request.
Abdul-Mahdi told the Iraqi parliament on Sunday that Soleimani entered the country with a response to a Saudi Arabian proposal to de-escalate the volatile situation between the two countries. He said that Trump had called for his assistance in mediating with the Gulf kingdom, which views Iran as its main regional rival, blaming it for attacks on its oil refineries earlier this year.
“[Gen Soleimani] came to deliver me a message from Iran, responding to the message we delivered from Saudi Arabia to Iran,” Abdul-Mehdi explained. But soon after he landed in Baghdad, Soleimani was killed in an attack by a U.S. drone described by the Iraqi prime minister as “a political assassination.”
The killing has dangerously ratcheted up tensions, with fears of an imperialist bloodbath drawing regional rivals into a deadly conflict. Trump has shown no signs of restraint, restating his threats to destroy 52 Iranian cultural and heritage sites, which would constitute a war crime according to international law.
“They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It doesn’t work that way,” he told reporters.
Soleimani’s replacement as commander of the Quds force, Esmail Ghaani, vowed revenge for the assassination and to drive the U.S. out of the region. In a televised interviewm he warned: “We promise to continue down martyr Soleimani’s path as firmly as before with help of God, and in return for his martyrdom we aim to get rid of America from the region.”
Millions of people poured onto the streets of Tehran Sunday as Soleimani’s casket made its way across the city.
This is an excerpt of an article that originally appeared in Morning Star.
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