Iran Press/Iran News: On 3 January 2020, US President Donald Trump issued a criminal order to assassinate the commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani and his companions at Baghdad Airport.
With the release of the official White House report, there are now clear contradictions and inconsistencies in Donald Trump's claims, as the main perpetrator of this criminal act.
On Friday, the Chairman of House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Eliot Engel said in a statement that the contents of the White House's official report contradict Donald Trump's claim that the attack on Lieutenant-General Soleimani was aimed at preventing an "immediate threat".
Senior US lawmaker Eliot Engel said in the official White House report, there is no mention of "imminent threat" and this clearly shows that the "President's justification to the American people was incorrect."
The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee has also said that Donald Trump has misconstrued the law to justify the attack on Soleimani. Earlier, some Trump administration officials said a drone attack on General Soleimani and his companions was carried out under the law passed in 2002, which provided the so-called 'legal basis for the attack and invasion of Iraq in 2003'.
Engel believes the reason the Trump administration cited this statute was to avoid congressional accountability for its actions. Engel said the government had falsely claimed that Congress had authorized the attack under " Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 " to avoid explaining its actions to Congress.
Legally, this excuse is absurd. "This law was passed in 2002 to oppose Saddam Hussein and it has nothing to do with Iran or Iranian officials in Iraq." "Saying that the law can be used 18 years later to kill an Iranian official is to extend the law beyond what Congress intended," Engel said.
Iranian General and the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps, Qassem Soleimani, deputy head of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis along with eight other of their companions were killed in an air raid by terrorist US forces near Baghdad International Airport on Friday, 3 January.
Related News:
Martyr LT. Gen Qasem Soleimani, a great defender against terrorists
The Pentagon has claimed the airstrike was directly ordered by Donald Trump. The American excuse for this criminal act was that General Soleiman had come to Iraq to plan attacks against Americans and their bases and that the US airstrike was a preventive measure.
However, senior Iraqi officials have denied the allegation. On January 5, Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi announced at a meeting of the Iraqi parliament that General Soleimani had arrived in Baghdad to convey an Iranian message to Saudi Arabia.
Speaking at a parliamentary meeting, Abdul Mahdi stressed that late Quds Commander Soleimani was carrying Iran's response to a Saudi letter that Baghdad had previously provided to Tehran.
Therefore, it has become crystal clear that Washington's claims are totally false. In fact, the Trump administration had been trying to assassinate General Soleimani for about a year and a half and was looking for an opportunity to do so.
From the eyes of Trump's military and security advisers, the presence of two key Iranian and Iraqi commanders who both were a serious obstacle to achieving American goals in West Asia, provided an opportunity that could not have been missed -- the double assassination of Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in Baghdad.
The US committed a great crime by this cowardly double assassination.
In fact, neither George W. Bush nor Barack Obama, former Presidents of the US dared to do because the measure would have had enormous consequences. Hence, as President Trump has proven to have no predictable behavior, he ordered the attack without considering the consequences.
Eliot Engel believes that the decision to assassinate Soleimani has exacerbated tensions with Iran and has taken the US and Iran to the brink of war; the decision that was not the will of the American people.
Now, the contradiction between the White House and Trump over the assassination of top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani has revealed by a senior US congressman, and the whole story suggests that Trump was merely looking for an excuse for this criminal act. 212/211/219
Read More:
General Soleimani assassination a miscalculation by US: Iran's Zarif
PMU Deputy: Cost of Lt. Gen Soleimani's blood, annihilation of Israel & US' withdrawal of Western Asia
