In Tehran, the assassination of Quds Force chief Soleimani is seen as close to a formal declaration of war
Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani attends a meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Revolutionary Guard commanders in Tehran, Iran on Sept. 18, 2016.With the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike near Baghdad airport on Thursday, the long-running shadow war between the United States and Iran has become an open conflict.
While Canada, the U.S. and many other Western governments label the Quds Force a “terrorist” group, Gen. Soleimani’s death is very different from the assassinations of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden or Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State. Gen. Soleimani may have been a terrorist in the eyes of some, but he was also a key figure in a heavily militarized regime that rules a country of 82 million people, and which has powerful friends – if not allies – in Russia and China.
Gen. Soleimani was seen as a hero in Tehran and among Shiite Muslims across the Middle East, as the mastermind of a series of strategic advances that came at the expense of the U.S. and its allies over the past 16 years. But many others in the region saw him as a villain responsible for deepening the sectarian conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The militias he directed have been blamed for tens of thousands of deaths.Ayatollah Khamenei visited Gen.
Tensions are high throughout the Middle East and beyond as the world waits to see where, and how hard, Iran will choose to hit back.
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