A Saudi prince said that the death of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani was a “wake-up call” for Iran about its provocations in the Middle East.
Prince Turki al Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief, told CNBC that the United States killing of the Iranian military leader serves as a “check” on Iran but warned that it won’t be enough to undo Iran’s agenda.
“The taking out of Soleimani definitely has been an important step to check at least some of the ambitions of Iran after its very provocative actions in the past year,” the prince said.
“This was a sort of a wake-up call to the Iranian government and the Iranian leadership that they can’t get away with it,” he continued. “Whether it would stop further activities by Iran to use the methods that Soleimani was very clever in using, I don’t think so.”
The prince said that the goal of the Iranian regime was to be the “dominant representative” for “all of Islam in the world.” He pointed out that country has affiliates like Hezbollah to carry out its wishes in different parts of the Middle East.
“That is going to continue,” he predicted. “Maybe less efficiently than when Soleimani was alive, but inevitably, equally terroristic and, in my view, evil in its intent.”
The 62-year-old Soleimani was killed in early January when a U.S. drone struck a vehicle he was riding in outside Baghdad’s airport. Soleimani was the leader of the Quds Force, an elite special operations unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American troops during the Iraq War.
Iran reacted to Soleimani’s death by firing more than a dozen missiles at two bases in Iraq that were housing U.S. troops.
[Opinion: Everyday Iranians know Qassem Soleimani for the terrorist he was]
