US SECRETARY of State Mike Pompeo has spilled the beans about the murder of top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. He has revealed that it was part of a ‘bigger strategy of deterrence’ – dumping President Trump’s claim that the murders by drone were carried out to prevent an ‘imminent’ attack.
Pompeo added: ‘I want to lay this out in context of what we’ve been trying to do. There’s a bigger strategy to this. President Trump and those of us in his national security team are re-establishing deterrence – real deterrence – against the Islamic Republic of Iran.’
Pompeo’s remarks were echoed by US Attorney General William Barr. He said: ‘I believe there was intelligence of imminent attack, but I do believe that concept of imminence is something of a red herring. We believed that the strike would restore deterrence and help avoid a continuing upward spiral of the violence.’
Also on Sunday, Pentagon Chief Mark Esper said he ‘had seen no intelligence forewarning of imminent attacks on embassies,’ further diluting the claim that the top Iranian general was assassinated because ‘he was involved in planning attacks on US targets.’
CNN reported that State Department officials involved in US embassy security had not been made aware of imminent threats to four specific US embassies, as was claimed by President Trump.
The January 3rd US drone airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport was a calculated act of mass murder to try to intimidate Iran and prepare the way for ‘regime change’.
Even Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has spoken out against the Trump-organised murders. He said that the 176 victims of the Ukrainian plane recently shot down unintentionally by the Iranian military would still be alive if there had been NO tension in the region.
‘I think if there were no tensions, if there was no escalation recently in the region, those Canadians would be right now home with their families,’ Trudeau said in an interview with Global News TV.
The Ukrainian passenger plane was accidentally shot down by an Iranian air defence unit when Iranian air defences were at their highest level of alert following Trump’s threats to hit 52 Iranian targets.
In his Monday interview, Trudeau said Canada did not receive a ‘heads up’ before the United States assassinated General Soleimani, and that he ‘obviously’ would have preferred one.
Earlier, the head of Canada’s Transportation Safety Board said Iran, far from hiding what happened, is allowing Ottawa to play a more active role than is normally permitted in the investigation into the Ukrainian plane crash.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) also announced on Monday that it has accepted an invitation from the government of Iran to provide expert advice in support of the investigation of the shooting down of the PS-752 flight.
The odd country out is Britain. Iran’s Foreign Ministry has issued a statement that ‘strongly condemned’ the UK endorsement of the assassination of Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, and the deputy head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Units, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, by ‘terrorist US forces’, saying that it proved ‘the cooperation of the British regime in the terrorist measure taken by the US.’
In another part of the statement, the Foreign Ministry pointed to the recent apprehension of the British ambassador to Tehran for taking part in an illegal gathering, saying it was clear interference in the internal affairs of Iran and against all principles that govern diplomatic relations.
The statement denounced Britain’s ‘blindfolded subservience to the US regime and the shameless inability of Britain to fulfill its commitments as per the JCPOA,’ (the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major world powers).
The statement finally urged Britain’s embassy in Tehran to ‘immediately end all types of meddlesome and provocative activities,’ warning that if such behavour is repeated the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will adopt measures tougher than just summoning the ambassador.
It is vital that the British TUC and trade unions take a stand in condemning the US murder of the Iranian military leaders and Britain’s support for it.
UK workers must support the Iranian people and demand that the TUC call a general strike to force the UK and the US to withdraw all of their troops from the Middle East and the Gulf, and bring down the Johnson government.
This is the only way to secure peace in the region.
