Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the reason why his country assassinated top Iranian anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani was to protect American resources.
Pompeo was speaking with Saudi news network, Al Arabiya, saying the US murdered General Soleimani to safeguard its assets in Iraq, its people in Syria and, in fact, Americans all across the world.
Pompeo claimed the assassination was an opportunity to stop what he called an imminent attack on US positions.
“General Soleimani was engaged in a plot to kill another 500 Americans. We had the opportunity to take down that plot, and we did,” he said.
“It was a project that we had been engaged in continuously and then we had this opportunity to stop what was an imminent attack on US resources, US assets, US people and … the president made the decision to just do that.”
General Soleimani was the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and was assassinated in January 2020.
Pompeo said Washington had been monitoring Quds Force activities. He also said Iran had already warned there would be a war if Washington withdrew from the 2015 deal, moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to al-Quds and killed Soleimani. However, Pompeo said, the US did all that and there was no war.
The assassination, which took place on January 3, 2020, near Baghdad airport, also killed the general’s companions, including deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
Both commanders were highly revered across the Middle East because of their key role in fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.
Zeinab Soleimani, the charismatic commander’s daughter, lauded his father’s battle against Takfiri terrorist groups in the West Asia region, pointing to US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s admission of Gen. Soleimani’s counter-terrorism achievements.
“Pompeo whines about Iran on Saudi TV. Home of 9/11 plotters. Jake Sullivan said Al-Qaeda ‘is on our side in Syria,’ but Soleimani crushed the terrorists,” Zeinab wrote.
“Iraq’s Adil Abdul Mahdi said he & dad were to meet that morning to explore regional de-escalation,” she added, referring to Iraq’s former prime minister. “Live in fear liar.”
