“The Assassination of Qassem Suleimani – Consequences – The U.S. Shoots Itself In the Foot in the Middle East…Again” – Continued – with Ibrahim Kazerooni and Rob Prince. KGNU 1390 AM, 88.5 FM – Hemispheres, Middle East Dialogues. Tuesday, February 25, 2019. 6 pm Mountain Time.

Syrian army liberating swaths of Idlib Province in northwest Syria in late January, 2020

“The Assassination of Qassem Suleimani – Consequences – The U.S. Shoots Itself In the Foot in the Middle East…Again” – continued – with Ibrahim Kazerooni and Rob Prince. KGNU 1390 AM, 88.5 FM – Hemispheres, Middle East Dialogues. Tuesday, February 25, 2019. 6 pm Mountain Time. Hosted by Jim Nelson.

We’ll discuss the latest developments in the Middle East, trying as usual to deconstruct the mainstream government and media narrative and explain – or try to – what is actually going on. Building on our last program in late January we continue discussing the regional consequences of the murder-by-drone of Iranian Quds leader, Qassem Suleimani.

It is now some seven weeks since Iranian General Qassem Suleimani, Iraqi government official Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and their entourage were assassinated leaving the Baghdad Airport by missile fired by US killer drone on the early morning hours of January 3, 2020, an assassination authorized by U.S. President Donald Trump seven months prior to the murder.

What was the thinking of the Trump Administration for the targeted assassination of Qassem Suleimani? What did Washington hope to accomplish by this?

The main idea was that by killing a leader of the movement – the movement being the Axis of Resistance –  that the movement left leaderless would collapse – or go into crisis thus strengthening the position of the U.S., Israel, the Saudis in the region. The Axis of Resistance is that web that of nations and social movements that brings together Iran, Iraq, Syria, Hezbollah and the Houthis of Yemen into coalition.

It is essentially the same logic that led to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X here in the United States a half century or more ago.

In the case of King and Malcolm X  these assassinations did hurt the movements they led. However times have changed and the Middle East is very different region with a whole different history and set of relations than the United States in the 1960s

Now, some seven weeks after the Suleimani assassination we want to address the question: Has the “Axis of Resistance” been weakened by this event, and what has it achieved since then?

Let’s start with what has transpired in Iraq since…

This and much more