Ever since Donald Trump was elected president on a non-military interventionist platform, sceptics have questioned his commitment to withdrawing troops from the Middle Eastern quagmire and stopping the endless wars he claims to despise. Now he has authorised the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, the head of the powerful Iranian Quds Force, we can be in absolutely no doubt on whether he stands: he’s no different to the other US presidents. It’s a massive strategic gamble. Soleimani was the second most powerful figure in Iran, answering only to the Ayatollah himself. For more than a decade he has been the architect of Iran’s regional military strategy. He helped Iraq and Syria defeat Isis. Among the Iranian masses, he was a hero like no other.
According to the Pentagon, Trump ‘directed’ the assassination of Soleimani to ‘deter future Iranian attacks’. This follows the breach of its Baghdad embassy earlier this week, after US air strikes that killed 25 fighters of the Iran-backed militia in Iraq, the Kataib Hezbollah.
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