WASHINGTON – *Israel Intelligence Agency Mossad was behind assassination ofIranian General Soleimani, claims NYT.*
Washington ordered the assassination of top Iranian General QassemSoleimani to sabotage de-escalation talks between Iran, Saudi Arabia andthe United Arab Emirates following a report by Israel’s Mossad spy agency,according to the New York Times.
The paper reported on Thursday that General Soleimani had been arrangingtalks in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates in order to de-escalatetensions with Tehran.
The Times wrote that the talks happened after Saudi Arabia and the UAE,which are central to the Trump administration’s so-called regional allianceseeking to pressure Iran, began to question the efficiency of Washington’santi-Iran campaign.
According to the report, one such meeting took place last September in AbuDhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates where a plane carrying”senior Iranian officials” landed for talks.
News of the meeting, which reached Washington only after it was notified byreports from American spy agencies, “set off alarms inside the WhiteHouse”, according to the report.
The report added that a similar mediation attempt, also arranged by Gen.Soleimani, was underway between Tehran and Riyadh using Iraqi and Pakistaniintermediaries.
The report wrote that the developments had greatly concerned Israel, whichhad been trying to push the Trump administration to exert more pressure onTehran.
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According to the Times, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Mossad chiefYossi Cohen on October during a trip to Israel where he was briefed onIran’s attempted de-escalation talks with Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Cohen warned Pompeo that Tehran was effectively on the verge of achievingits “primary goal” of breaking up the so-called “anti-Iran” alliance.
A few months later in early January, General Soleimani was assassinated byWashington’s order while on a formal visit to Baghdad.
According to former Iraqi prime minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, GeneralSoleimani was due to formally meet the Iraqi premier during the trip andwas carrying Tehran’s response to a message from Riyadh regarding thede-escalation talks.[image: Soleimani was to deliver Tehran’s reply to Saudi de-escalationletter when killed: Iraqi PM]linkFollowing the attack, the Trump Administration claimed that theassassination had taken place after a reported rocket attack on a US basein Iraq killed a “US civilian contractor” and that Gen. Soleimani was an”imminent threat” to US citizens.link
Many US political figures have rejected the claims and have questioned whythe Trump administration has failed to provide any evidence backing itsactions.
