Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani’s death in a U.S. airstrike deprives the regime of the man who orchestrated a yearslong hybrid war against American allies across the Middle East. “He’s irreplaceable for Iran,” a senior U.S. official familiar with Iran policy told the Washington Examiner after the Pentagon announced Soleimani’s death.
“There is no new boss who would be the same,” the official said.
The operation targeting Soleimani took place two days after Iranian-controlled militias attacked the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, while Defense Department officials were on high alert for other impending attacks.
Soleimani’s significance went far beyond the tensions of the last 48 hours. He has been Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s right-hand man in organizing attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and in the entrenchment of Iranian proxy forces on Israel’s borders. “Key link with militias in Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere — reported directly to Khamenei,” the senior U.S. official said. “Nobody else had that kind of latitude.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed the Iranian commander personally for the attack on the U.S. embassy earlier this week, saying during a broadcast television interview that “the Iranian-backed militiamen [were] directed to go to the embassy by Qassem Soleimani.”
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander wasn’t shy about his position. He boasted of his influence in a 2008 message sent directly to Army Gen. David Petraeus, who commanded American forces in Iraq at the time. “General Petraeus, you should be aware that I, Qassem Soleimani, control Iran’s policy for Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, and Afghanistan,” the message said, as the now-retired Petraeus recalled in 2015.
Soleimani sent that message amid a clash in Baghdad that was in key respects identical to the one that erupted over the weekend. As Iranian-controlled militia shelled the Green Zone, Soleimani demanded the release of Qais al Khazali, the very militia leader who organized the storming of the Green Zone this weekend.
Petraeus dismissed the request and later described Soleimani as “a truly evil figure.”
So, too, did others in response to the man’s demise. “Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans, and his death presents an opportunity for Iraq to determine its own future free from Iranian control,” Senate Foreign Relations Chairman James Risch of Idaho said Thursday evening.
