Middle East
As some predicted, while Tehran sought revenge for the U.S. assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, it retaliated in a calculated way so as not to provoke a U.S. response.
“The president is hewing to his own policy, which is drawing red lines at the loss of Americans while continuing to put pressure on the regime for its wide range of malign behavior,” Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS.
The president said in a speech to the nation that the Iranian regime “appears to be standing down,” that there were no U.S. casualties in the attacks, and that the damage was “minimal” as the “early-warning system worked very well.”
Tehran doesn’t want outright war; it is relying on the long game in its goal of ejecting U.S. forces from the region and completing its takeover of neighboring Iraq.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: Missile attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq were “a slap on the face” for America.
Iran claims that the crash was due to “technical difficulties,” refuses to hand over black boxes to Boeing • Commercial flights over Middle East rerouted in the wake of rising U.S.-Iran tensions.
Iranian Quds Force commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani was a living myth that unified, at least ideologically, the various camps in the “Resistance Front.” His death could crack the image Iran has carefully crafted in the 40 years since the Islamic Revolution.
The attacks come less than a week after the United States killed IRCG Quds Force Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad Airport.
Oman maintains friendly ties with both the United States and Iran, and sometimes acts as a link between the two countries.
U.S. Special Representative for International Negotiations Avi Berkowitz, on his first visit to Israel since succeeding Jason Greenblatt, is expected to also meet with Blue and White leader Benny Gantz.
The announcement comes days after the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, in a strike in Baghdad.
Three of Wikistrat’s top experts weigh in on the significance of the death in Iraq of one of Iran’s most important military commanders.
