Terry Glavin: Tehran's interference had tied NATO's Iraq mission in knots, and the idea of 'stability' had become an illusion
Following Sunday’s vote in the Iraqi parliament seeking the expulsion of American forces from the country, the multinational NATO-led mission in Iraq headed by a senior Canadian commander now figures prominently among the military and geopolitical applecarts suddenly overturned by the Trump administration’s obliteration of Iran’s global terror commander Qassem Soleimani last Friday.
The status of that operation, too, was thrown into total confusion on Monday with the leak of a letter by U.S. Brig.-Gen. William Seely to the effect that U.S. troops, in the wake of Sunday’s vote in the Iraqi parliament, were pulling out of Iraq, fully, finally and imminently. Later in the day, U.S. Defence Secretary Mark Esper said that no such decision has been made, and the letter had been misconstrued.
Muhandis, the Quds Force proxy killed along with Soleimani last Friday, was not just a bad character sanctioned under the U.S. Magnitsky laws. He wasn’t just a lowlife terrorist ex-con in command of the powerful Kataib Hizbollah militia, a U.S. terror-listed organization and self-described jihadist army.
The general outline of Soleimani’s strategy has been known to Iraqi and Iranian dissidents for some weeks, but it wasn’t until last weekend that the Reuters news agency hammered down the details. The Reuters account relies on Iraqi Shia politicians, Iraqi security sources, militia commanders, and senior officials close to Adel Abdul-Mahdi—the Iraqi prime minister who tried and failed last summer to rein in the militias. Abdul-Mahdi resigned on Dec.
The Quds Force would supply sophisticated weaponry—Katyusha rockets and shoulder-fired missiles capable of bringing down helicopters. The whole show was to be run by Muhandis and his Kataib Hezbollah outfit. The attacks would provoke an American military response, and across the region, but especially in Iraq, people would abandon their hopes for democracy and governments freed of malign Khomeinist influences, and everybody would be enraged about the Americans instead.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Canada and the world watch Trump and Iran - Macleans.caPolitics Insider for Jan 6: Assassination fallout, the Conservative leadership race and the (new) laws of the land
Read more »
Pentagon rejects Trump threat to hit Iranian cultural sitesDefence secretary says U.S. “will follow the laws of armed conflict”
Read more »
Pentagon rejects Trump threat to hit Iranian cultural sitesThe Pentagon on Monday distanced itself from U.S. President Donald Trump's assertions that he would bomb Iranian cultural sites despite international prohibitions on such attacks.
Read more »
Trump disregards Canada, allies with killing of Iranian general: ex-ambassadorBarack Obama's former ambassador to Canada says U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to order the killing of a top Iranian general represents the latest instance of the mercurial U.S. president throwing allies such as Canada under buses.
Read more »