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How Soleimani’s assassination could affect Iran’s Syria strategy

Iran could use its position in Syria to strike against the United States and Israel as part of Tehran's retaliation for last week's killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
Russian military personnel attend a memorial service for the late Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, at the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria, January 5, 2020. REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar - RC2Q9E9GR7ZS
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The assassination of Iranian Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani by a US strike in Baghdad has already pushed the Middle East toward a new, higher phase of tensions. While Iranian officials are repeatedly talking about a “hard revenge” against the United States, US President Donald Trump has threatened that any retaliatory move by the Islamic Republic would result in an American attack against 52 sites inside Iran, “some at a very high level and important to Iran and the Iranian culture.”

In Iraq, the American strike — which also resulted in the death of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy chief of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units — has been widely seen as a breach of Iraq’s sovereignty and of the security agreements between Baghdad and Washington. As a result, the Iraqi parliament voted Jan. 5 for the expulsion of American troops from the country.

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