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Iranian channels interrupted the early morning broadcast. Iran has woken up with a panegyric on its screens: a string of Koranic prayers, sermons felt and interviews with victims of wars, in which the 'martyr' had interceded in his favor, have cushioned the 'shock' of the first minutes After knowing the news. Then, thousands of Iranians, dressed in rigorous mourning, have filled mosques throughout the country during the prescriptive prayer on Friday, whose homilies have filled with regrets and thirst for revenge.

In the main cities of Iran, including many that just a month ago were the scene of protests against the 'establishment', the neighborhood feel has now galvanized in long and large marches of condemnation in which the beloved cry 'Death to America! ' It has sounded more passionate than before. In Kermán, the birthplace of Qasem Soleimani, and where his remains will rest, hundreds of neighbors have gathered to cry in front of the family home, which Supreme Leader Ali Jamenei, on an exceptional day, has visited to offer his condolences and, True to the official narrative, celebrate "martyrdom."

US kills Iranian General Soleimani in a missile attack at Baghdad airport

"A hard revenge awaits the criminals who stained their hands with their blood and that of the other martyrs," were Jamenei's first words. Statements that imply that the US president, with his decision to end the shadow strategist and one of the mainstays of Iranian foreign policy, has given a lethal blow to any possibility of negotiating a peace and avoiding a short war term. A conflict that Donald Trump himself had said he didn't want on New Year's Eve.

In an unusual gesture, whoever has the utmost word on all matters of state in Iran has chaired the extraordinary meeting of the Supreme National Security Council. In a blunt post-appointment statement, the Council has defined what happened as "the biggest strategic mistake" of the United States "in Western Asia." He said that Washington "will not easily escape the consequences of this miscalculation."

"These criminals will face severe revenge [...] at the right time and place. The holy war and the path of persistence will undoubtedly continue and now doubly motivated, and the tree of resistance will grow more and more prosperous every day ", has settled the highest body in charge of Security in Iran, opening the door to a range of possible reprisals that are unknown at this time, but with which Iran will pursue to inflict damage equivalent to the huge blow suffered.

Signal of the Iranian will to react quickly to the facts, Khamenei has decreed the relief in the dome of the Quds Force with the former 'number two' of Soleimani, Brigadier General Esmail Qani. Another veteran of the Iran-Iraq war who, as a witness to years of alliances woven by his partner, knows his ins and outs and will try to prove to Trump that he has fallen into the error of thinking that by decapitating a "terrorist group" - according to him - as The Quds Force, a state actor entrenched in the region, will end it.

If anything, say most experts, Trump's personal decision, the result of a previously machined plan, but never executed precisely because of the catastrophic adversities that could lead to it, can lead to an era in which the Middle East can become a Irrespirable environment not only for parked American troops, but for diplomats and even citizens. To this end, the friendships forged by Soleimani from Iran to Lebanon and Yemen can be crucial.

Although Tehran has always been evasive when carrying out its missions abroad, it is considered to directly or indirectly support the Yemeni Huzi movement, the armed arm of the Lebanese Shiite party Hezbollah or Falange Hezbollah, the militia operating in Syria and Iraq and that is in the eye of the unleashed hurricane - its leader, Abu Mahdi Muhandis was killed along with Soleimani. All these groups, with or without direct order from Tehran, could take revenge for the general's murder.

Of all the scenarios, Iraq is the one that threatens to become the battlefield of the first war of the decade. During the last months of escalating tension, Iran has transferred advanced weapons such as missiles to its related forces, which also belong to the Iraqi defensive axis. This has already led the Iraqi Government to strongly condemn the recent US attacks on its soil, a political asset that Tehran could count on if it tries to respond by forcing the US withdrawal into Iraq.

"This lost life will possibly cost many more - Iranians, Iraqis, Americans and others -. It is not only the death of Soleimani, but possibly the death of the nuclear agreement with Iran and any option for diplomacy between Iran and the US and for the reduction of hostilities, "says Ali Vaez, an analyst in Iran for the International Crisis Group. A summary of how Trump's decision to withdraw from the atomic pact in 2018 has ended, as in a fall of dominoes, to burn the Middle East in 2020.

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