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United States kills Iranian elite force general

After the death of Qasem Soleimani, leader of the Quds Force, at the hands of the US military, the country has announced that it will retaliate.

Qasem Soleimani, leader of the Quds Force in Iran.

Qasem Soleimani, leader of the Quds Force in Iran. / Photo: AP

LatinAmerican Post | Juliana Suárez

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Leer en español: Estados Unidos mata a general de fuerza élite iraní

The general died executed by an order of Donald Trump, according to the Pentagon, on the road to the airport in Baghdad, Iraq. The attack was perpetrated by US drones in response to an attack on the US embassy in Iraq by pro-Iranian protesters.

The elite Quds group, which General Soleimani commanded, is a paramilitary revolutionary guard and has for many years been regarded by the United States as a terrorist group. According to the BBC, it is one of the ramifications of Iranian security forces for overseas operations” and has had ties with the Hezbollah group and Shiite militias in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Quds Force has been on the radar of US forces because in some of its attacks, as in Beirut in 1983, US soldiers died. Similarly, both the United States and the European Union have claimed that this group has provided weapons to Syria to help the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Therefore, according to the Pentagon, the attack on Soleimani occurred because it posed a threat to US diplomats by having information about the group's plans to attack them. In the statement, he also said that this was a defensive attack only.

 

 

However, for the defense of Iran, the group has not had major direct actions, but has preferred to remain covered to support groups or cause them to help spread Iran's influence in the region.

A declaration of war

President Donald Trump had declared this group a Foreign Terrorist Organization, stating that this was the Iranian mechanism to support other terrorist groups. By cataloging it as such, you could try to counteract its actions and prevent its growth.

Not being this declaration sufficient to impose itself on that group, the action perpetrated on Friday on Iraqi land has been considered by experts as a direct demonstration of war by the United States towards Iran and, incidentally, to further destabilize the region of Middle East.

For his part, the Iranian Foreign Minister published his dissatisfaction with the actions of the United States, ensuring that the Quds Force is the most effective force in the fight against the Islamic State. He also described the attack as an act of "international terrorism" and said that the United States will have to be held responsible for any reprisals that will occur.

 

 

According to the BBC, Philip Gordon, “coordinator of the White House for the Middle East and the Persian Gulf during the Barack Obama administration, described the death of Soleimani at the hands of the United States as little less than a declaration of war by the Americans to Iran. "

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Given this, not only are US relations with Iran worsened but also with Iraq, as the attack on Iraqi soil was committed.

What will happen?

The supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, announced that Iran will retaliate strongly when it is considered an attack against the country's sovereignty. He announced that the death of Qasem Soleimani will not stop the mission that the Quds elite group has done for years and that he was an “honorable” man who fought against the evils of the world, also ensuring that he died at the hands of the “cruelest people of the world ”, according to information from TN.

Iran is expected to take some kind of action against the United States, although it is not known what type or scale. According to the BBC, Iran "could, for example, renew the siege of the US embassy in Baghdad, putting the Iraqi government in a difficult situation and questioning the deployment of the United States in that country." What can be assured is that relations in the Middle East and the United States are burning in a thread.

Meanwhile, the first thing that was affected were oil prices, which increased during Friday.

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