The daughter of slain Iraninan General Qassem Soleimani has appeared on RT’s show Going Underground, speaking with its host Afshin Rattansi in her first big international interview nearly a year after her father was murdered.
General Soleimani, commander of the Quds force within Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was killed outside the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad early in January on a direct order of US President Donald Trump. The general was targeted by a US drone strike which obliterated a car Soleimani was traveling in. Other high-ranking military officials, including Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, were also killed.
The assassination was commissioned by Trump as he was furious with Soleimani and his work, Zeinab Soleimani believes, as her father had disrupted US plans in the Middle East. Back in the day, Trump bragged about the killing, describing the slain general as a “monster.”
This hardly befits Soleimani, who saved numerous lives in his fight against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and Al-Qaeda terrorist groups, Zeinab argued.
“My father destroyed their plans [in the Middle East], of course they would be happy if they killed him – and they were proud,” she said. “Of course for them my father is a big monster, but my father is a savior.”
The assassination of Soleimani has greatly backfired for Washington, as it prompted more people to fight the US, Zeinab stated.
“After killing my father, America thought that everything would be stopped, because they killed General Soleimani, the power of the Middle East. But they are so wrong,” Zeinab said. “They are so wrong in thinking this will be the end of General Soleimani, this is the beginning.”
Indeed, the assassination has not only invoked the wrath of Tehran, as well as left a major dent in relations between Washington and Baghdad, triggering accusations the US betrayed its ally. The killing prompted the Iraqi parliament to adopt a non-binding resolution urging a complete withdrawal of foreign troops from the country, while Iran launched missile strikes on several military facilities that housed American troops.
The incident has also triggered a chain of attacks on US installations across the country, including its embassy in Baghdad. The attacks, attributed to pro-Iranian Iraqi paramilitary forces, have plagued American and other coalition forces for months and, ultimately, led to the withdrawal of foreign troops from multiple locations across Iraq.
Watch the full show below:
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