A strike in the capital baghdad iran is calling it an assassination he was the leader of the elite could support a division of revolutionary guard corps which has a far reaching influence in iraq syria lebanon and also beyond all the pentagon and so the moneys death in a tweet it said at the direction of the president the u. S. Military has taken decisive defensive action to protect u. S. Personnel abroad by killing kasim solo monny the head of the Iranian Revolutionary guard corps could force thats a u. S. Designated foreign terrorist organization. Hold donald trump after authorizing that strike tweeted this no words just a simple picture of the american flag. Well it wasnt just solomonic who was killed the u. S. Forces of also killed the Deputy Commander of the iranian backed coalition of armed groups in iraq. This from the Popular Mobilisation forces was killed when the airstrike targeted is vehicle on the road to the baghdad airport. Well the u. S. Air strikes in iraq have drawn mixed reactions from around the goal from and to give them protesters also in baghdad burn down in the killing of carson city money and i will not be able hundreds will eliminate the corrupt parties which are destroying iraq the only care we are on america and iran should solve the problems outside iraq we dont want them to solve inside iraq because this will not serve we into risk with do not celebrate the killing of soon the money or anyone else because this will not serve us at the end of the day. Well the Supreme Leader of iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called for 3 days of mourning for many says those who killed some solomonic should await a quote tough revenge in a statement he said all the friends and foes must know that the path of jihad of the resistance will continue with double motivation and a definite victory awaits those who fight in this auspicious demise of our selfless and dear general is bitter but the continued fight and achievement of the final victory will make life more bitter for the murderers and criminals well of course we have correspondents covering the story from all angles of elizondo is in washington d. C. Dorset did barri in tehran but 1st lets speak to someone of fulton live in baghdad hi there suborn or so as people have been waking up to this news what weve been seeing is a very mixed reaction some seeing it almost as a gift but i can only imagine that people are also incredibly worried about what the implications within iraq of this might be. Indeed in the beginning there were some celebrations but thats the whole square and also in some southern cities in iraq but of course people here are extremely worried that there will be an escalation a confrontation between iranian backed armed groups here in iraq and u. S. Forces based here this stage is basically set for further escalation weve already been seeing it over the past few weeks with attacks by the iranian backed Popular Mobilization forces on bases where u. S. Military personnel are stationed in response to one of these attacks which killed a u. S. Contractor with then saw a retaliation by the u. S. Attacking several positions of hezbollah so in many ways this latest airstrike by the u. S. To kill kassab so the money as well as i will marty on one hand is who is the 2nd in command of the Popular Mobilization of forces is just another escalation of what has already been a stand of here in iraq between the Popular Mobilization forces and u. S. Troops that are based here and many iraqis feel that especially given the. Statements coming out of iran that there should be a forceful response but also statements here in iraq the Popular Mobilization forces have been in meetings since the morning and there have been promises by its leaders including. The who is the head of a cyber hug which is one of the groups under p. M. S. Has vowed that there will be action until there is no more basically u. S. Military presence here so it remains to be seen what exactly this reaction will be whether we will see more rocket attacks on for example the u. S. Embassy or debases where u. S. Military personnel are based its also possible that to morrow there will be another attempt to attack the u. S. Embassy because were here. Plans about a funeral procession of course so lets remember that the last funeral procession to commemorate the 27 hezbollah brigade fighters who were killed in the strike on sunday actually morphed into an attack and the siege on the u. S. Embassy here in baghdad so there is some fear that the Popular Mobilization forces will once again gather their might and once again try to march on the green zone and once again try to attack the u. S. Embassy and of course there is also fear that there might be some kind of confrontation industries because on the one hand you have a crowd in Tahrir Square dead at least initially welcomed this u. S. Strike and then you have another crowd consisting of members and supporters of the Popular Mobilization forces that is vowing to avenge their monies and. So it also remains to be seen what will happen on the streets today similar fulton joining us there with the very latest from baghdad simona thank you well lets go straight now to dosage of our who joins us from tehran every door so revenge has been a very central parts of the reaction today from tehran what could this mean. Well it means that this is not going to go unanswered that weve heard from various officials high ranking the highest in the Islamic Republic including the Supreme Leader the defense minister as well as president of the world all said that this will not this act by kerry carried out by the United States is an act of war and that it will not go unanswered were eventually take can afford the deaths of us have so many the president has just issued a statement saying that no doubt this horrific the revenge of this horrific crime will be taken by iranian nation and liberated nations of the region so president rouhani hinting there that this a response is not limited just to iran in the middle east it could come from other countries in the region as well he expressed his condolences to the Supreme Leader as well as the revolutionary guards and all of the iranian population weve had Statement Issued by the Supreme Leader and get in which he illustrated how important it was himself the money was not only to him but to the cause of furthering islam and irans agenda in this region the Supreme Leader very close to us and so the money they were alongside each other during the iran iraq war between 1988 and then the commander quickly rose up in the ranks of the revolutionary guards to become the head of the full force in the early 1990 s. So this is a very very serious escalation we are seeing now the iranians that they want to they will be responding in the coming days its just a matter of when and how we know that it has according to the Iranian Ambassador in baghdad today or trying to make arrangements to bring back what is left of general body the remains to teheran where a funeral procession will be held for him in the coming days. Also im wondering if you can reflect on those also what is like for an ordinary iranians person waking up to this news is it being taken as a kind of personal attack on all or any ins given the sorts of isolationists policies that weve seen of some countries in the world what is a way what does it feel like to wake up and hear this news. Well there was a sense of shock and disbelief on my way in this morning it was quite early and it is a friday which is a Public Holiday here its the weekend but to start with i spoke to my taxi driver and he was almost in tears he had to stop halfway through the ride to collect himself and there compose himself before he could finish bringing me into the bureau this morning i also have asked to speak to weve been speaking to a few iranians on the streets one person we spoke to said that hes in shock his father has been glued to the Television Set all morning and hes been crying just to give you a sense of how emotional people are about him selling money he wasnt just a regular commander dealing with the security of our own outside of the borders of this country he was known as a figure who helped the poor he was seen as a very influential figure who was devoid of any corruption of any negative allegations that have never been made against them so this act by the United States has been seen as a very aggressive act an act of war a declaration of war for many ordinary iranians they said that this was not necessary for them to kill him it is understood that there is a certain dislike and distrust and distain for the revolutionary guards outside of iran but to kill one of the most revered commanders in the revolutionary guard in the its force is something iranians are taking very personally he is one of the most well known well recognized figures india Islamic Republic and his death is being seen as an act of war dosage of their luck joining us with the very latest live from tehran dollars. Well of course his death has exacerbated tens surely between iran and the United States and its also raise concerns over the retaliation by the revolutionary guard President Donald Trump has not made any further comments about the airstrike so far but other u. S. Politicians have responded with more on that lets cross over to Gabe Elizondo whos standing by for us in washington d. C. I know gave the youve been our poll night following the developments on this just sum up the reaction so far. Well we need to point out that we have not heard directly from President Donald Trump or directly from secretary of state mike pompei or at least any sort of Public Comments thats number one but we have heard from a handful of important lawmakers here in washington and that is important because these are the people that are the highest ranking government officials that we are hearing from reacting to this and from the gamut a little bit here and i want to give you a couple examples of the kind of things that were hearing 1st from rake public and senator Lindsey Graham who is also one of Donald Trumps closest allies in the senate he reacted on twitter by saying in part this action by President Trump in our military was in direct response to iranian aggression orchestrated by general salim mani and his proxies if iran continues to attack attack america and our allies they should pay the heaviest of prices which includes the destruction of their Oil Refineries this comment by Lindsey Graham sort of summarizes what weve heard from other prom mostly republican senators as well such for example such as marco rubio from florida echoing this same sentiment sort of congratulating trump for these actions in a way but there is another side to this there are several democrats nancy pelosi being one but also particularly joe biden who issued a very interesting statement its a little bit different joe biden 1st elected to congress in 1973 served for many years on the Foreign Relations committee before being brock obamas a Vice President for 8 years he is now one of the Top Democrats running in the democratic nomination for president running for president in the election next year let me get to what biden said in part in a statement he said President Trump just tossed a stick of dynamite into a 10. Your box and he owes the American People an explanation of the strategy and plan to keep safe our troops and Embassy Personnel our people and our interests both here at home and abroad iran will surely respond we could be on the brink of a major conflict across the middle east and game what do we know right now about u. S. Troop deployments and what might that tell us yeah the pentagon has not released any official information this evening or into the early hours here on friday morning its a little after 2 am local time thats number one however the 82nd airborne based out of fort bragg North Carolina has confirmed that some paratroopers have arrived at american air base in neighboring kuwait its unclear exactly when they arrived but they said that it was yesterday which means thursday washington time roughly its unclear if these paratroopers are the 750 that the pentagon announced a couple days ago or a day ago i should say they were being deployed to the region immediately or if this is a new Troop Deployment but clearly we do know that the 82nd airborne one of the strongest armies fighting forces is definitely on standby for deployment if they havent deployed already sometimes these deployments happen very secretly in the middle of the night we simply dont know yet we expect to hear more from the pentagon later on friday once washington wakes up again here in the Morning Hours in washington listen to there with the very latest of that reaction from washington d. C. Gabe thank you. Well were hearing from local media and israel the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cut short his trip to greece to deal with the potential political fallout of all in mon khan joins us now from west jerusalem so hes cut his trip short him bron. What are they going to be thinking that might happen in reaction to these attacks well already the israelis have reacted now whats happened is there is a security Cabinet Meeting underway right now that happens as any crisis like this develops as a matter of routine theyll meet theyll discuss what they need to do theyve already issued 3 directives firstly raising the alert to every single Diplomatic Mission abroad as a result of these events overnight they are also raising the alert on the border with lebanon and with syria because of this as well and. Looking to see what they go to do next this is the neighborhood if theres going to be any reaction it will be within the middle east and israel clearly is in the middle of the middle east and has a shares a border with syria and lebanon and thats hezbollah and thats a real concern to israeli lawmakers and to the Prime Minister right now however this may well be used as politicking by the probably the states facing a Reelection Campaign he wants to be seen as being tough so were expecting a lot of reaction from israel from the Prime Minister himself where he talked tough because there is an Election Campaign going on at my can we expect some sort of specific reaction on the accusation from they rainey and that they were that israel was somehow involved in these targeted killings i mean theyve theyve hardly had a boy and beautiful relationship these 2 countries. Theyll be no reaction from that if a precedent is anything to go by in the past the israelis of always maintained a level of secrecy when it comes to intelligence with iran the only way you really find out about this is when the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu actually says it himself and says to the public we are we did this because we had intelligence but actual official statements no were not going to find anything like that out but what the what the key thing is to watch out for israels reaction and what israel does next you must come there joining us from israel in months. When my job so where is the director of golf studies and sense a Qatar University and hes here with us in the studio good to have you with us theres so much that we could talk about i see that youve got scribbles on your piece of paper ive got about 10 pieces of paper here. Where do we start what are the questions that we should be asking right now. Basically what is what is what is the trigger what is what makes the United States makes the decision now to targets us and so they manage that i think that is the important of course i believe i probably say its intelligence right yes you know we know we know for a fact that he was targeted and he was the target for years to the United States at least in the last 15 years and we know that many times he was targeted even by the israelis inside iran and the last attempt was the last october 2090 so basically he was the target he was the the golden target for for israel and the United States but i think what happened in the last few days i can summarize it in 3 points one what happened in the embassy in iraq was a crucial if you look at whats being written on the wall of the embassy is that so they manny a man is mildly that written by the the shabby you know forces on the embassy that was a message to that was an Important Message i think that that was a wake up call to the United States that you know you are there is something going on now and they have to be ready for that thats an important the 2nd the 2nd one is the tension between tehran and washington in the last few months there was a serious tension increasing drop at least because of the a maximum pressure a policy implemented by the United States which basically had the economy and the politics of iran and lid to sort of lifting a sense of how to tackle all of this and to deliver to the iranian people which we so the implication of that or sort of im a vacation of that in october on is serious you know. Which lead to killing around 1500. 00 according to the home Rights Organization and the 3rd. Element in this context is that how much this actually will affect the iranian polity oriental policy and the region how much to actually. The absence of some ceremony when we can drink the iranian politics in the middle east i do believe that he has a cat as impersonate a individual he was working on those 5 since 1988 hes very close to the Supreme Leader personally because Supreme Leader started his position a distro one year after the 1989 so hes very close to him one of the important thing about some sort of money is that we have to differentiate between 2. 00 i would say periods within the art of public in particularly the 2010 and after 2010. The reason why that is the arab spring doesnt feel a man out of spring has been seen by a lot of public as someone whos actually supporting resistance against as it were there has been a lot. After 2010 he was the kid out of syria he was the killer of iraqis he was the person who is actually weakening the states who is the person who is actually. Changing a serious. Or pushing serious change on a democratic plan in syria pushing water to different places forcing people to convert to from sunni to shia so there are a lot of the 2 piece said about his character since 2012 particularly i think this will add a lot to the discussion about his assassination today by jim thank you believe there friend i will of course be talking to you through the rest of the day thank you. Well for it is out he is a professor of law and studies at the university of tehran and he joins us now from the iranian capital a very warm welcome to the program do you think theres any chance that cooler heads may prevail in the days and weeks that come weve heard a lot of of quite sort of violent language and rhetoric this morning what do you think will happen. I think iran is a spineless to this illegal isis a nation is going to be quite serious. If by cooler heads you mean iran will not respond i dont think that would happen even if you dont and the others decided which is very unlikely but if they decided not to respond general so money had a lot of friends throughout the middle east and internationally and not all of them take. Advice from iraq and so you will see response and thats why you see a lot of politicians in the United States issuing a statement condemning this act of by President Trump because they realize that at the end of the day. The consequences for this act is going to damage the United States the u. S. Has lost its legitimacy they have not only attacked then the iranian general they have also killed an iraqi general and someone who has been part of iraq she military force for many years someone who was a war hero against isis when isis was trying to take over baghdad just a few years ago. So there are medications are going to be quite severe and this is going to be the beginning of the end of u. S. Presence in the middle of this january 3rd we can market then you can and i wonder flight if you convert flecked for me on what i was just discussing with my guest here my job so wary and in doha about why now for the u. S. What do they specifically have to gain right now and what does iran have to lose by taking this action this illegal as you call them targeted killings right now. You know john bolton when he was Trumps National security advisers a couple of months before he left office he talked about targeting. General saudi money so people within the u. S. Government people who are in people got out of wanted to have him dead but these people as you know these are the french group of very hawkish individuals who have taken over the white house. And they are sort of acting. As age acting. Not thinking a strategy. Focusing on long term policies that may benefit the United States. And they think foolishly that killing an iranian general they can reduce irans influence what they have done is actually have increased irans influence because. Iran is infamous was not dependent on the money. Tens of other journalists that were deployed a same gender play same success over the name. Quite soon and the line of work his line of work will continue. So you dont damage to you ron is the loss of one general damage to the United States is loss of legitimacy and thats going to be much more important in the long run and forward to speaking domestically for a 2nd within time on itself and for the government could whats happened be an opportunity to to strengthen itself to build nationalism. I think youre exactly right youre going to see this. Lobbying out on the fire theyre going to have you know general sort of money was the most popular man in iran. In Public Opinion polls because. You belong to this party or the other party people in need realize that their security is because of his hard work his and his people and we had isis getting close to dani and borders not too long ago and the fact that isis is defeated people in the iran i think is because of general sort him on his efforts so as i was reviewing the reactions in tehran i was coming to your city years. Everybody from different political parties. Severely condemning this terrorist act and this is going to unite unions against the United States i think they dont know government to. Make sure that the people who are responsible for this killing will pay for their legal action sooner or later and the. Policy of president rouhani to try to resolve difficulties that existed between iran and United States is not going to be followed any more its going to be. Done desisting depression. By all means necessary. Ford is are there joining us live with the latest thank you so very much for joining us with your thoughts from tehran. Literally just a week things of escalated dramatically between the u. S. And iranian backed groups in iraq thats weak a rocket attack struck an Iraqi Military base killing an American Contract and 2 days later u. S. Launched air strikes against a poor raney an armed group the has 27 of its fighters were killed well that enraged members and supporters call it rainin paramilitary groups in iraq who stormed the American Embassy compound in baghdad. Now israel as we heard our an aftermarket respondent there has raised its level of our lives along its borders with lebanon and with syria will mohamad junction joins us live from beirut i guess that mohamed everybodys waiting to find out what the reaction might be from hezbollah. Thats right Julie Hizbollah and other members of the lebanese government as well that so far theres been no official announcement from hezbollah or from other officials here in lebanon on what we have heard is there was an article that i guess you could call it one part obituary for fox and so they money in one part editorial in a pro israeli the sorry pro Hizbullah Lebanese daily newspaper called the bottom of the headline said its war and it went on to say whoever took this decision then that means the decision to kill time so the money is either stupid and does not know what he got himself into or hes opening a door for war that was already prepared for the article goes on to say that the axis of resistance and by axis of resistance the newspaper means countries such as syria iraq lebanon palestine and iran thats what they call them that they will indeed have to retaliate at this point now what exactly does retaliation mean at this point nobody really knows and in a country like lebanon on that could be particularly worrisome and so they money well he was the leader of irans proxies in lebanon he was somebody who was very important to his bolo which is closely affiliated with you don which is also backed by iran so what exactly is hizbullah going to do clearly we are expecting that there will be a statement from the fish but the leader has in the sort of look at some point today although we dont know exactly when thats going to happen what will he say what happens next does this mean that another type of proxy war begins in lebanon again all of these all of this very unclear at this stage because just. At a particularly fraught time for lebanon because not only is there now a worry this could mean that there would be violence potentially in lebanon but also you have to remember 11 on has been in the midst of massive antigovernment demonstrations for around 2 and a half months now and youve had many demonstrators going out day after day and calling for a complete overhaul of the political system now the reason i bring this up in the context of what happened is because theres been luck is part of the majority bloc in parliament here it is a political player aside from being a military player and you know hizbullah right now is going to be a key player in trying to make sure a new government is formed right now you have a foreign minister designate who has not yet been able to form a cabinet and there are other members of the caretaker government here that have been very vocal in the past few months of wanting pres but lower demanding his beloved basically renounce its ties with iran to not be so close with iran that was something that was practically impossible before of course its going to be impossible now so this really has an effect on the day to day life in this country at the moment a country thats on the verge of bankruptcy where the economic crisis continues to spiral out of control and were protests are ongoing julie and mohamed its been interesting has named the some of the protests that weve seen across the region in iran itself in lebanon where you are and also in iraq one of the key demands was lessening a weighty an influence on politics so i wonder for some people waking up in lebanon today what their thoughts are on what the needs of future might bring with those complications that you that lying. Well julie i mean what ive heard so far is a lot of shock a lot of people in lebanon on the edges really trying to absorb this news not just in the fact that many of them didnt believe that Something Like this could have happened but also in that they just dont know what this means Going Forward there are already so many questions in lebanon i mean there are so many people here that are worried about how exactly things are going to go on. And living off if a government is actually going to be formed when that is going to happen the dire Economic Situation that the country is in this only adds more questions to an equation that everybody is already talking about it makes things that much more dire in a place where its really assumed that everything is fragile to begin with you know the protesters here in lebanon they have not been as focused on trying to lessen the iranian influence as say it is the case in any talks i mean thats something you hear from a lot of the protesters in Tahrir Square in baghdad and other parts of it off where i was several weeks ago here in lebanon on the protesters mainly have been talking about trying to come together as a country and really get a government that works for the lebanese people a government made of technocrats they want to in corruption and this is something where now you have this complication thats really going to impact the formation of a government because it has but let is a huge political player in lebanon because they are going to have to agree to whomever the Prime Minister designate assumes will be his cabinet so this just really is just really causes more complications at a time when the lebanese are tired they want to get a functioning government and they want the country to be in much better shape economically and socially to lean on the judge and theyre joining us with the latest from mohamed thank you. And watching our desire i remind our top story this hour irans top military commander has been killed in u. S. Airstrikes in nevada
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