The aftermath of the American operation launched on the orders of President Donald Trump in which one of the most powerful actors in the Middle East, Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, was killed, fears the worst for the region.
Fears commensurate with the influence of the one who was the head of the Iranian forces Al-Quds, an elite unit of the Guardians of the Revolution, registered on the American list of "terrorist organizations" in April 2019.
The United States also called on Friday all its nationals to leave Iraq "immediately", while Iran has already promised to avenge the death of the military strategist of the Islamic Republic "at the right time and at a good place".
Head of Iran's "main instrument of destabilizing support"
From Tehran to Beirut, Damascus and Baghdad, the general in charge of the Islamic Republic's external operations was the shadow commander of the "axis of resistance" against the United States and Israel, respectively qualified as "Great Satan" and "Zionist entity" by Iran.
Washington has always seen man as a central figure in the Islamic Republic and a powerful source of harm to his interests in the region. Particularly in Iraq, where he exerted a key political and military influence to place this country under Iranian domination, by financing and training several Iraqi Shiite militias which turned against the American troops stationed in the country.
The Pentagon, which said on Friday that it had taken "decisive defensive measures to protect American personnel abroad by killing Qassem Soleimani", attributes to the Iranian general, who enjoyed a certain popularity in Iran in particular for his role in the fight against the Islamic State organization in Iraq and Syria, the deaths of "hundreds" of American and allied soldiers.
The Quds Force he headed, in not realizing that Supreme Leader also intervened in Syria in 2013 to support the regime of Bashar al-Assad, accusing Washington. For this reason, it was also sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury.
The State Department also accuses him of having orchestrated a bombing plan against a restaurant aiming to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, a few hundred meters from the White House. In a report published in May 2019, the al-Quds Force is described as "the main support instrument destabilizing the Islamic Republic to agents and terrorist groups" like Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas, classified as such by the US administration.
Soleimani should have been killed "years ago" says Trump
Despite the profile of this close friend of Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei, his assassination had so far remained a red line that no American administration, neither that of George W. Bush, nor that of Barack Obama, had dared to cross.
Not even the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu, when he accused Qassem Soleimani be primarily responsible for the growing influence of Iran and its allies in the region.
"The United States and even Israel could have targeted Soleimani in the past, but they abstained because of what this character represented for the Iranians and on the chessboard of the Middle East, in particular because of its capabilities and its network stretching from Tehran to the borders of Israel, "says France 24 Maged Hassan, founder of D & S Consulting and expert on the region.
US President Donald Trump said in a tweet on Friday that Qassem Soleimani should have been killed "years ago". "General Qassem Soleimani has killed or seriously injured thousands of Americans over a long period of time and plans to kill many more (...). He was directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of millions of people", has he justified.
The death of Qassem Soleimani mainly comes three days after an unprecedented attack by pro-Iranian partisans against the embassy of the United States in Baghdad, but also in a series of attacks carried out rocket in recent weeks, against its diplomats and American soldiers. A series attributed by Washington to Iranian-sponsored Shiite forces. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that the Iranian official was preparing a "major action" threatening "hundreds of American lives."
>> Read also: "Assassination of Qassem Soleimani: an American raid with questionable legality"
If some officials Democrats have criticized the initiative of President Trump, none of them has questioned the target of the operation, described as "terrorist" and "murderer".
Qassem Soleimani "had the blood of Americans on his hands and I will not mourn his death," Eliot Engel, the Democratic head of the House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement. However, he said he was "deeply concerned about the repercussions" of this act.
A general in Israel's crosshairs
On the Israeli side, the main regional ally of the United States, the Iranian general and the Al-Quds Force which he leads are accused of being behind the anti-Israeli attacks of summer 2012 or the attack in the bomb against a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires in 1994.
More recently, Israel has conducted strikes in Syria to foil a planned attack by the Revolutionary Guards which was to launch drone packed with explosives into Israel under the command of the leader of the Al-Quds Force, Qassem Soleimaini.
"He knows that his assassination is not impossible. His actions are identified and felt everywhere ... There is no doubt that the infrastructure built that poses a serious challenge to Israel," declared October 10 the head of Mossad , Yossi Cohen, in the columns of the ultraorthodox newspaper Mishpacha.
His active and material support for Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and for Hezbollah, the Lebanese politico-military movement, have changed the balance of power, frequently recall Israeli officials in the local press.
"The martyr commander Qassem Soleimani assured for two decades direct support to Palestine and military expertise and security to mujahideen of the Palestinian resistance," wrote Friday Al Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement , in a message of condolence, relayed by the Iranian agency Farsnews.
Originally a Shiite militia supported by Iran to fight the Israeli occupation (1982-2000), Hassan Nasrallah's party has meanwhile steadily risen, thanks to its arsenal supplied by Tehran, as the main threat to the Israelis, and the dominant political force in Lebanon.
"Qassem Soleimani was a long-standing enemy of Israel, and he was above all the face of Iranian power and expansion in the region," reports Antoine Mariotti, France 24 correspondent in Jerusalem.
Sign of the Israeli concerns, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday decided to cut short a trip to Greece after the announcement of the death of Qasim Soleimaini. He assured, in a statement released by his office that his country stood alongside Americans in their "just struggle for peace, security and self-defense."
"The United States, like Israel, has the right to defend itself," added the head of the Israeli government. "Qassem Soleimani is responsible for the deaths of American citizens and many other innocent people" and he "planned to carry out new attacks".
For its part, the Israeli army radio said that the alert level of the country's security forces had been raised a notch. Instruction has been given to members of Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet not to comment on the death of Soleimani, not to provoke retaliation allies of Tehran.
"Here, the Israelis do not want to appear as having been part of this operation, or as being directly involved in the death of the Iranian general, indicates Antoine Mariotti. An army spokesman said this morning that no comments will be made on what is considered an American business. "
Hamas and Hezbollah offered their condolences to the Islamic Republic, but none of them made reference to the Hebrew state, the former referring to "American crime" and the latter to "American killers".
Newsletter Don't miss anything from international news
Don't miss anything from international newssubscribe
google-play-badge_FR